Integrins are transmembrane glycoproteins with two noncovalently bound α and β subunits. The two subunits mediate cell–cell and cell–extracellular matrix (ECM) interactions, and they act downstream of several primary signaling events that lead to angiogenesis (1-3). Integrins comprise a large family of cell adhesion molecules, and integrin αβ appears to be the most attractive member for angiogenesis-targeted imaging and therapy because of its critical involvement in tumor angiogenesis, development, and metastasis (1, 2). Integrin αβ is minimally expressed in normal blood vessels but is significantly upregulated in newly sprouting vasculature in tumors (4, 5). A significant effort has been made to generate various imaging agents targeting integrin αβ (6-10). Generally, these agents can be categorized as antibodies, peptides, small-molecule peptidomimetics, and targeted nanoparticles. Vitaxin is the representative of monoclonal antibodies against integrin αβ. Vitaxin is a humanized antibody composed of human IgG-1, kappa, and the complement domain regions of the murine antibody LM 609. Regardless of its efficacy in inhibiting angiogenesis, imaging with Tc-labeled Vitaxin failed to show the tumor angiogenesis in the clinical settings because of its poor stability and rapid plasma clearance with low doses (11). Interestingly, Gutheil et al. have reported that second-generation Vitaxin-2–conjugated, gadolinium-encapsulated nanoparticles could provide enhanced and detailed imaging of rabbit carcinomas and imaging of angiogenic “hot spots” that are not seen with standard magnetic resonance imaging (12). The major limitations of monoclonal antibodies include large molecular size, low production yield, incomplete tumor penetration, and immunogenicity to host. Numerous small peptides have been identified to specifically interact with tumor neovasculature, including arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (RGD), asparagine-glycine-arginine, histidine-tryptophan-glycine-phenylalanine, and arginine-arginine-leucine (RRL) (9, 13-15). RGD tripeptide sequence is known as a cell recognition site for adhesive proteins present in the ECM and in blood. Integrin αβ binds ECM proteins through the exposed RGD tripeptide in their ligands. Both linear and cyclic RGD peptide agents have been proven to be useful in imaging tumor neovasculature. In general, linear peptides are broken down rapidly and occupy a wide range of conformations, resulting in low binding affinity and less specific accumulation within tumors. Short cyclic peptides are superior to linear peptides for their pharmacokinetics due to the fact that they are trapped in the active conformation and are more resistant to proteolysis. The pharmacokinetic behaviors of RGD peptides can be further improved with introduction of sugar moiety, the dimeric format of RGD peptides, or coupling with 1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane--tetraacetic acid or polyethylene glycol (13, 16, 17). However, RGD peptides are less selective (binding with 8 of the 24 integrins), and their binding affinities are relatively low (50% inhibition concentration (IC), 20–70 nmol) compared to antibodies. Other peptide sequences such as RRL have also been investigated to generate imaging agents (15, 18). Recently, several classes of peptidomimetic integrin αβ antagonists have been reported (9, 14). These peptidomimetic antagonists consist of a rigid core scaffold bearing basic and acidic groups that mimic the guanidine and carboxylate groups of the RGD sequence. Additionally, ligand array of integrin antagonists on nanoparticles has been proven to be a viable strategy to target vascular surface receptors on endothelial cells. Imaging studies are in progress with these new strategies (7). Coleman et al. and Wang et al. synthesized a series of 3-substituted tetrahydro-[1,8]naphthyridine–containing αβ antagonists, and the investigators reported that these compounds displayed excellent pharmacokinetics (19, 20). On the basis of these non-peptide antagonists, Kossodo et al. synthesized a 3-aminomethyl analog, labeled it with fluorescent dye VivoTag-S680, and named the labeled analog IntegriSense (9). IntegriSense had a stronger binding affinity with integrin αβ (IC, 4.1 nmol) and a better selectivity (binding with αβ/αβ) than RGD peptides. IntegriSense specifically accumulated in the αβ/αβ-expressing tumors, and the accumulated amount could be quantified in small animals with fluorescence molecular tomography (FMT). FMT quantifies fluorescence by tomographic reconstruction of a series of fluorescence images excited at different source locations, using a model of photon propagation in a scattering medium (9, 21). By normalizing each fluorescence image to its corresponding excitation image, FMT overcomes the optical heterogeneity of biological tissue, thus resolving the ambiguity about depth, size, and concentration of fluorescence that affects planar imagers. Quantification of known concentrations of fluorochrome with FMT have shown strong linearity between actual and reconstructed FMT dye concentrations and a detection threshold of ~100 fmol (22). FMT has been used for concurrent imaging and quantification of different targets and biological processes (9, 21).