Open Access<p>Prospects for the Use of Upconverting Nanoparticles as a Contrast Agent for Enumeration of Circulating Cells in vivo</p>
Author(s) -
Peter Bartosik,
Jessica E. Fitzgerald,
Mirna El Khatib,
Mohammad A. Yaseen,
Sergei A. Vinogradov,
Mark Niedre
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
international journal of nanomedicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.245
H-Index - 128
eISSN - 1178-2013
pISSN - 1176-9114
DOI - 10.2147/ijn.s243157
Subject(s) - autofluorescence , in vivo , flow cytometry , biophysics , fluorescence , in vitro , biocompatibility , biology , lewis lung carcinoma , circulating tumor cell , cancer cell , microbiology and biotechnology , cancer research , materials science , nanotechnology , biochemistry , cancer , optics , physics , metastasis , genetics , metallurgy
We recently developed a new fluorescence-based technique called "diffuse in vivo flow cytometry" (DiFC) for enumerating rare circulating tumor cells (CTCs) directly in the bloodstream. Non-specific tissue autofluorescence is a persistent problem, as it creates a background which may obscure signals from weakly-labeled CTCs. Here we investigated the use of upconverting nanoparticles (UCNPs) as a contrast agent for DiFC, which in principle could significantly reduce the autofluorescence background and allow more sensitive detection of rare CTCs.