State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No.44, Xiaohongshan, Wuhan 430071, P. R. China.
Nanoscale. 2012 Jan 7;4(1):188-93. doi: 10.1039/c1nr11132a. Epub 2011 Nov 14.
Bionanoparticles and nanostructures have attracted increasing interest as versatile and promising tools in many applications including biosensing and bioimaging. In this study, to image and detect tumor cells, ferritin cage-based multifunctional hybrid nanostructures were constructed that: (i) displayed both the green fluorescent protein and an Arg-Gly-Asp peptide on the exterior surface of the ferritin cages; and (ii) incorporated ferrimagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles into the ferritin interior cavity. The overall architecture of ferritin cages did not change after being integrated with fusion proteins and ferrimagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles. These multifunctional nanostructures were successfully used as a fluorescent imaging probe and an MRI contrast agent for specifically probing and imaging α(v)β(3) integrin upregulated tumor cells. The work provides a promising strategy for tumor cell detection by simultaneous fluorescence and MR imaging.
作为在生物传感和生物成像等诸多应用中具有多功能和广阔应用前景的工具，生物纳米粒子和纳米结构受到了越来越多的关注。在本研究中，为了对肿瘤细胞进行成像和检测，构建了基于铁蛋白笼的多功能杂化纳米结构：(i) 在铁蛋白笼的外表面显示绿色荧光蛋白和精氨酸-甘氨酸-天冬氨酸肽；(ii) 将超顺磁性氧化铁纳米粒子掺入铁蛋白内腔。在与融合蛋白和超顺磁性氧化铁纳米粒子整合后，铁蛋白笼的整体结构没有改变。这些多功能纳米结构成功地用作荧光成像探针和 MRI 造影剂，用于特异性探测和成像α(v)β(3)整合素上调的肿瘤细胞。该工作为通过荧光和磁共振成像同时进行肿瘤细胞检测提供了一种很有前途的策略。
