Open AccessUltrasmall Conjugated Polymer Nanoparticles with High Specificity for Targeted Cancer Cell Imaging
Author(s) -
Feng Guangxue,
Liu Jie,
Liu Rongrong,
Mao Duo,
Tomczak Nikodem,
Liu Bin
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
advanced science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.388
H-Index - 100
ISSN - 2198-3844
DOI - 10.1002/advs.201600407
Subject(s) - nanoprobe , conjugated system , nanoparticle , fluorescence , biophysics , cancer cell , nanotechnology , in vivo , polymer , fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy , chemistry , materials science , cancer , biology , physics , genetics , microbiology and biotechnology , organic chemistry , quantum mechanics
Fluorescent and biocompatible organic nanoparticles have attracted great interest in cancer detection and imaging, but the nonspecific cellular uptake has limited the detection specificity and sensitivity. Herein, the authors report the ultrasmall conjugated polymer nanoparticles (CPNs) with bright far‐red/near‐infrared emission for targeted cancer imaging with high specificity. The sizes of the ultrasmall CPNs are around 6 nm (CPN6), while large CPNs show sizes around 30 nm (CPN30). Moreover, CPN6 exhibits largely improved fluorescence quantum yield (η) of 41% than CPN30 (25%). Benefiting from the ultrasmall size, bare CPN6 shows largely suppressed nonspecific cellular uptake as compared to CPN30, while cyclic arginine‐glycine‐aspartic acid (cRGD) functionalized CPN6 (cRGD‐CPN6) possesses excellent selectivity toward α v β 3 integrin overexpressed MDA‐MB‐231 cells over other cells in cell mixtures. The faster body clearance of CPN6 over CPN30 indicates its greater potentials as a noninvasive nanoprobe for in vivo and practical applications.