Open AccessUltrabright fluorescent silica nanoparticles for in vivo targeting of xenografted human tumors and cancer cells in zebrafish
Author(s) -
Saquib Ahmed M. A. Peerzade,
Xiaodan Qin,
Fabrice Laroche,
Shajesh Palantavida,
Maxim Dokukin,
Berney Peng,
Hui Feng,
Igor Sokolov
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
nanoscale
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.038
H-Index - 224
eISSN - 2040-3372
pISSN - 2040-3364
DOI - 10.1039/c9nr06371d
Subject(s) - in vivo , hela , zebrafish , fluorescence , polyethylene glycol , cancer cell , nanoparticle , materials science , nanotechnology , biophysics , peg ratio , green fluorescent protein , in vitro , cancer , cancer research , chemistry , biology , biochemistry , optics , physics , genetics , microbiology and biotechnology , finance , gene , economics
New ultrabright fluorescent silica nanoparticles capable of the fast targeting of epithelial tumors in vivo are presented. The as-synthesized folate-functionalized ultrabright particles of 30-40 nm are 230 times brighter than quantum dots (QD450) and 50% brighter than the polymer dots with similar spectra (excitation 365 nm and emission 486 nm). To decrease non-specific targeting, particles are coated with polyethylene glycol (PEG). We demonstrate the in vivo targeting of xenographic human cervical epithelial tumors (HeLa cells) using zebrafish as a model system. The particles target tumors (and probably even individual HeLa cells) as small as 10-20 microns within 20-30 minutes after blood injection. To demonstrate the advantages of ultrabrightness, we repeated the experiments with similar but 200× less bright particles. Compared to those, ultrabright particles showed ∼3× faster tumor detection and ∼2× higher relative fluorescent contrast of tumors/cancer cells.