Plasmonic Nanoparticles with Quantitatively Controlled Bioconjugation for Photoacoustic Imaging of Live Cancer Cells.

ABSTRACT: Detection and imaging of single cancer cells is critical for cancer diagnosis and understanding of cellular dynamics. Photoacoustic imaging (PAI) provides a potential tool for the study of cancer cell dynamics, but faces the challenge that most cancer cells lack sufficient endogenous contrast. Here, a type of colloidal gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are physically fabricated and are precisely functionalized with quantitative amounts of functional ligands (i.e., polyethyleneglycol (PEG) and (Arginine(R)-Glycine(G)-Aspartic(D))₄ (RGD) peptides) to serve as an exogenous contrast agent for PAI of single cells. The functionalized AuNPs, with a fixed number of PEG but different RGD densities, are delivered into human prostate cancer cells. Radioactivity and photoacoustic analyses show tha

SUBMITTER: Tian C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5157183 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature