Open AccessUltrasmall Downconverting Nanoparticle for Enhanced Cerenkov Imaging
Author(s) -
Qize Zhang,
Edwin C. Pratt,
Ryo Tamura,
Anuja Ogirala,
Hsiao-Ting Hsu,
Nasim Farahmand,
Stephen O’Brien,
Jan Grimm
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
nano letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.853
H-Index - 488
eISSN - 1530-6992
pISSN - 1530-6984
DOI - 10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c00049
Subject(s) - nanoparticle , polyethylene glycol , europium , nanotechnology , materials science , chemistry , radiochemistry , luminescence , optoelectronics , organic chemistry
Cerenkov imaging provides an opportunity to expand the application of approved radiotracers and therapeutic agents by utilizing them for optical approaches, which opens new avenues for nuclear imaging. The dominating Cerenkov radiation is in the UV/blue region, where it is readily absorbed by human tissue, reducing its utility in vivo . To solve this problem, we propose a strategy to shift Cerenkov light to the more penetrative red-light region through the use of a fluorescent down-conversion technique, based upon europium oxide nanoparticles. We synthesized square-shape ultrasmall Eu 2 O 3 nanoparticles, functionalized with polyethylene glycol and chelate-free radiolabeled for intravenous injection into mice to visualize the lymph node and tumor. By adding trimethylamine N-oxide during the synthesis, we significantly increased the brightness of the particle and synthesized the (to-date) smallest radiolabeled europium-based nanoparticle. These features allow for the exploration of Eu 2 O 3 nanoparticles as a preclinical cancer diagnosis platform with multimodal imaging capability.