Pedrosa Pedro, Baptista Pedro V, Fernandes Alexandra R, Guerra Mauro
UCIBIO, Departamento de Ciências da Vida, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa 2892-516 Caparica Portugal
Laboratory of Instrumentation, Biomedical Engineering and Radiation Physics (LIBPhys-UNL), Department of Physics, NOVA School of Science and Technology, NOVA University Lisbon 2829-516 Caparica Portugal
RSC Adv. 2021 Aug 2;11(42):26344-26353. doi: 10.1039/d1ra05446e. eCollection 2021 Jul 27.
The use of nanomaterials to improve medical diagnostics and therapeutics has been rapidly increasing. Among these materials are gold nanoparticles, which can be functionalized to target specific cells, acting as nanovectors for drug delivery, enhanced contrast agents as well as other targeted therapies. Au nanoparticles are very useful as they selectively accumulate in tumour sites due to the enhanced permeability-retention effect. There is however little information about the spatial distribution of the nanoparticles within tumours, which might hinder efficient therapies. In this study, X-ray fluorescence was used to investigate the diffusion of gold nanoparticles in cancer cell spheroids mimicking true tumour growth. Functionalization of the nanoparticles has the effect of allowing better diffusion into and out of the spheroid, while those nanoparticles that are only partially covered rapidly formed aggregates. This clustering led to size exclusion during transport within the tumour, changing its distribution profile while greatly increasing the nanoparticle concentration.
使用纳米材料改善医学诊断和治疗的情况一直在迅速增加。这些材料中包括金纳米颗粒，其可以被功能化以靶向特定细胞，充当药物递送的纳米载体、增强型造影剂以及其他靶向疗法。金纳米颗粒非常有用，因为由于增强的渗透滞留效应，它们会选择性地在肿瘤部位积聚。然而，关于纳米颗粒在肿瘤内的空间分布信息很少，这可能会阻碍有效的治疗。在本研究中，使用X射线荧光来研究金纳米颗粒在模拟真实肿瘤生长的癌细胞球状体中的扩散。纳米颗粒的功能化具有使其能更好地扩散进出球状体的效果，而那些仅部分被覆盖的纳米颗粒会迅速形成聚集体。这种聚集导致在肿瘤内运输期间的尺寸排阻，改变其分布轮廓，同时大大增加纳米颗粒浓度。
