Department of Thyroid Surgery, The First Bethune Hospital of Jilin University, No. 71, Xinmin Street, Changchun, Jilin 130021, People's Republic of China and The Institute for Translational Nanomedicine, Shanghai East Hospital, The Institute for Biomedical Engineering & Nano Science, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200120, People's Republic of China.
The Institute for Translational Nanomedicine, Shanghai East Hospital, The Institute for Biomedical Engineering & Nano Science, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200120, People's Republic of China.
Nanoscale. 2017 Feb 9;9(6):2219-2231. doi: 10.1039/c6nr07656d.
As the most common endocrine malignancy with a high incidence, thyroid cancer lacks a dual-modal imaging method for precise diagnosis. An accurate and multimodal imaging system is pivotal to solve this problem. Herein, dual-modality fluorescence/Computed Tomography (CT) iodinated gold nanoclusters for malignant thyroid cancer visualization have been recently fabricated. In this study, innovative iodinated gold nanoclusters (AuNCs@BSA-I) were synthesized via Bovine serum albumin (BSA) and chloramine-T. AuNCs@BSA-I not only possess an ultra-small size and brilliant biocompatibility but also exhibit excellent fluorescence/CT imaging properties. Particularly with regard to CT imaging properties, AuNCs@BSA-I rival the clinical CT contrast medium. And the fluorescence emission spectrum of AuNCs@BSA-I falls in the near infrared region (NIR). For further translational application in medicine, we established an orthotopic human thyroid cancer patient tissue derived xenograft (PDX) mouse model, highly close to the actual human thyroid cancer. The results unveil that AuNCs@BSA-I exert sensitive and accurate diagnosis characteristics. To be more specific, the AuNCs@BSA-I fluorescent/CT signals in the thyroid tumor represent characteristics of 'slow in fast out', compared to those in the normal thyroid. Moreover, AuNCs@BSA-I could distinguish minimal thyroid cancer, as small as 2 mm. Therefore, AuNCs@BSA-I appear to be a promising nanoprobe which could be applied to preclinical medicine.
作为最常见的内分泌恶性肿瘤之一，甲状腺癌缺乏精确诊断的双模态成像方法。一个准确的多模态成像系统对解决这个问题至关重要。最近，已经制备了用于恶性甲状腺癌可视化的双模态荧光/计算机断层扫描（CT）碘化金纳米簇。在这项研究中，通过牛血清白蛋白（BSA）和氯胺-T 合成了创新的碘化金纳米簇（AuNCs@BSA-I）。AuNCs@BSA-I 不仅具有超小尺寸和出色的生物相容性，还表现出优异的荧光/CT 成像性能。特别是在 CT 成像性能方面，AuNCs@BSA-I 可与临床 CT 对比剂相媲美。而且 AuNCs@BSA-I 的荧光发射光谱落在近红外区域（NIR）。为了在医学中进一步转化应用，我们建立了一个原位人甲状腺癌患者组织衍生异种移植（PDX）小鼠模型，高度接近实际的人甲状腺癌。结果揭示了 AuNCs@BSA-I 具有敏感和准确的诊断特征。更具体地说，与正常甲状腺相比，甲状腺肿瘤中的 AuNCs@BSA-I 荧光/CT 信号表现出“慢进快出”的特征。此外，AuNCs@BSA-I 可以区分最小的甲状腺癌，小至 2 毫米。因此，AuNCs@BSA-I 似乎是一种很有前途的纳米探针，可应用于临床前医学。
