International Journal of Nanomedicine (Jul 2019)
PEG-coated and Gd-loaded fluorescent silica nanoparticles for targeted prostate cancer magnetic resonance imaging and fluorescence imaging
Abstract
Wei Jiang,*,1 Huiying Fang,*,2 Fengqiu Liu,3 Xue Zhou,1 Hongyun Zhao,4 Xiaojing He,1 Dajing Guo11Department of Radiology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400010, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Breast Diseases, Chongqing University Cancer Hospital, Chongqing Cancer Institute and Chongqing Cancer Hospital, Chongqing 400030, People’s Republic of China; 3Institute of Ultrasound Imaging, Department of Ultrasound, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400010, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Gastroenterology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400010, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workBackground: Multimodal imaging probes have become a powerful tool for improving detection sensitivity and accuracy, which are important in disease diagnosis and treatment.Methods: In this study, novel bifunctional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)/fluorescence probes were prepared by loading gadodiamide into fluorescent silica nanoparticles (NPs) ([email protected]@SiO2-PEG-Ab NPs) for targeting of prostate cancer (PCa). The physicochemical characteristics, biosafety and PCa cell targeting ability of the [email protected]@SiO2-PEG-Ab NPs were studied in vitro and in vivo.Results: The [email protected]@SiO2-PEG-Ab NPs had a spherical morphology with a relatively uniform size distribution and demonstrated high efficiency for Gd loading. In vitro and in vivo cell-targeting experiments demonstrated a high potential for the synthesized NPs to target prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) receptor-positive PCa cells, enabling MRI and fluorescence imaging. In vitro cytotoxicity assays and in vivo hematological and pathological assays showed that the prepared NPs exhibited good biological safety.Conclusion: Our study demonstrates that the synthesized [email protected]@SiO2-PEG-Ab NPs have great potential as MRI/fluorescence contrast agents for specific identification of PSMA receptor-positive PCa cells.Keywords: silica nanoparticles, prostate cancer, magnetic resonance imaging, fluorescence imaging, targeting
