Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta at IFOM (Fondazione Istituto FIRC di Oncologia Molecolare)-European Institute of Oncology (IEO) Campus, Via Adamello 16, 20139 Milan, Italy.
Mol Pharm. 2013 Mar 4;10(3):875-82. doi: 10.1021/mp300530c. Epub 2012 Dec 18.
The field of nanotheranostics encompasses the integration of nanosized carriers in cancer imaging, diagnosis, and therapy. The use of nanomedicines for theranostic application typically depends on direct visualization of the nanocarriers. Normally fluorescent probes are attached to nanocarriers for biodistribution measurement through fluorescence imaging. However continued, noninvasive assurance that the fluorescent probe remains bound to the carrier has proven elusive. Mature erythrocytes, also known as red blood cells, are incapable of endocytosis. As a consequence, when incubated with fluorescently labeled particles, they do not show any signal coming from the membrane or the cytoplasm. Yet, these cells readily take up free BODIPY fluorescent dyes into their membranes. Here we show that incubation of nanoparticles with erythrocytes is a rapid and reliable method for the detection of unbound dye present within a nanoparticle sample, as the detection of a fluorescent signal coming from the cells can only be due to unbound dye present in the sample. We test the method on both sulfonate and PEG terminated gold nanoparticles, and we determine the minimum concentration of detectable dye for a specific gold nanoparticle sample.
纳米诊疗学领域包括将纳米载体整合到癌症成像、诊断和治疗中。纳米药物在治疗应用中的使用通常取决于纳米载体的直接可视化。通常，荧光探针被连接到纳米载体上，通过荧光成像进行生物分布测量。然而，持续、非侵入性地保证荧光探针仍然与载体结合，这一直难以实现。成熟的红细胞，也称为红细胞，不能内吞。因此，当与荧光标记的颗粒孵育时，它们不会显示来自膜或细胞质的任何信号。然而，这些细胞很容易将游离的 BODIPY 荧光染料吸收到它们的膜中。在这里，我们表明，将纳米颗粒与红细胞孵育是检测纳米颗粒样品中存在的未结合染料的快速可靠方法，因为只能由于样品中存在未结合的染料，才会从细胞中检测到荧光信号。我们在磺酸盐和 PEG 终止的金纳米颗粒上测试了该方法，并确定了特定金纳米颗粒样品中可检测染料的最小浓度。
