Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas, CSIC, Madrid, Spain.
PLoS One. 2012;7(9):e44466. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0044466. Epub 2012 Sep 5.
Adult neurogenesis is restricted to specific brain regions. Although involved in the continuous supply of interneurons for the olfactory function, the role of neural precursors in brain damage-repair remains an open question. Aiming to in vivo identify endogenous neural precursor cells migrating towards a brain damage site, the monoclonal antibody Nilo2 recognizing cell surface antigens on neuroblasts, was coupled to magnetic glyconanoparticles (mGNPs). The Nilo2-mGNP complexes allowed, by magnetic resonance imaging in living animals, the in vivo identification of endogenous neural precursors at their niche, as well as their migration to a lesion site (induced brain tumor), which was fast (within hours) and orderly. Interestingly, the rapid migration of neuroblasts towards a damage site is a characteristic that might be exploited to precisely localize early damage events in neurodegenerative diseases. In addition, it might facilitate the study of regenerative mechanisms through the activation of endogenous neural cell precursors. A similar approach, combining magnetic glyconanoparticles linked to appropriate antibodies could be applied to flag other small cell subpopulations within the organism, track their migration, localize stem cell niches, cancer stem cells or even track metastatic cells.
成人神经发生仅限于特定的脑区。尽管神经前体细胞在嗅觉功能中持续供应中间神经元，但它们在脑损伤修复中的作用仍然是一个悬而未决的问题。为了在体内鉴定向脑损伤部位迁移的内源性神经前体细胞，我们将识别神经母细胞表面抗原的单克隆抗体 Nilo2 与磁性糖纳米颗粒（mGNPs）偶联。通过活体动物的磁共振成像，Nilo2-mGNP 复合物允许在其生态位原位鉴定内源性神经前体细胞，并使其迁移到损伤部位（诱导脑肿瘤），这一过程快速（数小时内）且有序。有趣的是，神经母细胞快速迁移到损伤部位是一个特征，可能被用来精确定位神经退行性疾病中的早期损伤事件。此外，它可能通过激活内源性神经细胞前体来促进再生机制的研究。类似的方法，将与适当抗体偶联的磁性糖纳米颗粒结合，可以应用于标记生物体中的其他小细胞亚群，追踪它们的迁移、定位干细胞生态位、癌症干细胞甚至追踪转移细胞。
