Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, 3 Research Link, 117602, Singapore.
Adv Healthc Mater. 2013 Dec;2(12):1600-5. doi: 10.1002/adhm.201300135. Epub 2013 Jul 9.
Understanding the localization and engraftment of tumor cells at postintravasation stage of metastasis is of high importance in cancer diagnosis and treatment. Advanced fluorescent probes and facile methodologies for cell tracing play a key role in metastasis studies. In this work, we design and synthesize a dual-modality imaging dots with both optical and magnetic contrast through integration of a magnetic resonance imaging reagent, gadolinium(III), into a novel long-term cell tracing probe with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) in far-red/near-infrared region. The obtained fluorescent-magnetic AIE dots have both high fluorescence quantum yield (25%) and T1 relaxivity (7.91 mM(-1) s(-1) ) in aqueous suspension. After further conjugation with a cell membrane penetrating peptide, the dual-modality dots can be efficiently internalized into living cells. The gadolinium(III) allows accurate quantification of biodistribution of cancer cells via intraveneous injection, while the high fluorescence provides engraftment information of cells at single cellular level. The dual-modality AIE dots show obvious synergistic advantages over either single imaging modality and hold great promises in advanced biomedical studies.
了解肿瘤细胞在转移的血管内阶段的定位和植入对于癌症的诊断和治疗非常重要。先进的荧光探针和简便的细胞示踪方法在转移研究中起着关键作用。在这项工作中，我们设计并合成了一种具有光学和磁共振对比双重模态的成像点，通过将磁共振成像试剂钆（III）整合到一种新型的具有聚集诱导发射（AIE）的远红/近红外区域的长期细胞示踪探针中。所得到的荧光-磁共振 AIE 点在水悬浮液中具有高荧光量子产率（25%）和 T1 弛豫率（7.91 mM-1 s-1）。进一步与细胞膜穿透肽缀合后，双模态点可以有效地被内吞到活细胞中。通过静脉注射，钆（III）可以准确地定量癌症细胞的生物分布，而高荧光则提供了细胞在单细胞水平上的植入信息。双模态 AIE 点在单一成像模式上具有明显的协同优势，在先进的生物医学研究中具有广阔的应用前景。
