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Intravital optical tracking of actively targeted phospholipid mixed micelle drug delivery nanocarriers in breast cancer cells using quantum dots
Author(s) -
Rubinstein Israel,
Soos Imre H.,
Onyuksel Hayat
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.20.4.a267-b
Subject(s) - nanocarriers , biophysics , cancer cell , quantum dot , confocal microscopy , micelle , chemistry , fluorescence microscope , drug delivery , materials science , nanotechnology , cancer , microbiology and biotechnology , fluorescence , medicine , biology , aqueous solution , physics , quantum mechanics
The purpose of this study was to track accumulation of human vasoactive intestinal peptide‐targeted sterically stabilized phospholipid mixed micelle nanocarriers (VIP‐SSMM; size 15 nm) in cultured human MCF‐7 breast cancer cells that overexpress VIP receptors using quantum dot‐based intravital fluorescent imaging. Hydrophobic CdSe/ZnS quantum dots (size, 5 nm) were encapsulated into VIP‐SSMM and SSMM alone. Thereafter, the constructs were incubated with MCF‐7 cells for 15–45 min. Accumulation of quantum dots within cells was analyzed by intravital phase contrast fluorescent microscopy. We found that quantum dots encapsulated into VIP‐SSMM accumulated significantly faster and in greater quantity in MCF‐7 cells than did SSMM alone (p<0.05). After 45‐min incubation, VIP‐SSMM accumulation was increased by 61% over that of SSMM alone (p<0.05). Pre‐treatment with excess VIP reduced intracellular VIP‐SSM accumulation by 35% (p<0.05). Confocal microscopy revealed that quantum dots were localized in the cytoplasm. We conclude that actively targeted VIP‐SSMM delivers hydrophobic compounds into human MCF‐7 breast cancer cells more effectively than SSMM alone. Supported by NIH RO1 AG024026, RO1 HL72323 and VA Merit Review grants