Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University School of Medicine , Atlanta, Georgia 30332, United States.
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology , Atlanta, Georgia 30332, United States.
Nano Lett. 2017 Oct 11;17(10):5984-5989. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b02105. Epub 2017 Sep 27.
We have developed laser-activated perfluorocarbon nanodroplets containing copper sulfide nanoparticles (CuS NPs) for contrast-enhanced ultrasound and photoacoustic imaging. As potential clinical contrast agents, CuS NPs have favorable properties including biocompatibility, biodegradability, and enhance contrast in photoacoustic images at clinically relevant depths. However, CuS NPs are not efficient optical absorbers when compared to plasmonic nanoparticles and therefore, contrast enhancement with CuS NPs is limited, requiring high concentrations to generate images with sufficient signal-to-noise ratio. We have combined CuS NPs with laser-activated perfluorocarbon nanodroplets (PFCnDs) to achieve enhanced photoacoustic contrast and, more importantly, ultrasound contrast while retaining the favorable clinical characteristics of CuS NPs. The imaging characteristics of synthesized CuS-PFCnD constructs were first tested in tissue-mimicking phantoms and then in in vivo murine models. The results demonstrate that CuS-PFCnDs enhance contrast in photoacoustic (PA) and ultrasound (US) imaging. Upon systemic administration in vivo, CuS-PFCnDs remain stable and their unique vaporization provides sufficient PA/US contrast that can be further exploited for contrast-enhanced background-free imaging. The conducted studies provide a solid foundation for further development of CuS-PFCnDs as PA/US diagnostic and eventually therapeutic agents for clinical applications.
我们开发了含有硫化铜纳米粒子（CuS NPs）的激光激活型全氟碳纳米液滴，用于对比增强超声和光声成像。作为潜在的临床对比剂，CuS NPs 具有良好的特性，包括生物相容性、生物可降解性和在临床相关深度的光声图像中增强对比度。然而，与等离子体纳米粒子相比，CuS NPs 的光吸收效率并不高，因此，CuS NPs 的对比增强效果有限，需要高浓度才能产生具有足够信噪比的图像。我们将 CuS NPs 与激光激活型全氟碳纳米液滴（PFCnDs）结合，以实现增强的光声对比，更重要的是，在保留 CuS NPs 临床优势的同时，还能保持超声对比。合成的 CuS-PFCnD 结构的成像特性首先在组织模拟体中进行了测试，然后在体内小鼠模型中进行了测试。结果表明，CuS-PFCnDs 增强了光声（PA）和超声（US）成像的对比。在体内系统给药后，CuS-PFCnDs 保持稳定，其独特的蒸发提供了足够的 PA/US 对比，可以进一步用于对比增强、背景无干扰的成像。进行的研究为进一步开发 CuS-PFCnDs 作为 PA/US 诊断剂，并最终作为临床应用的治疗剂提供了坚实的基础。
