谷胱甘肽修饰金纳米棒用于肿瘤细胞光敏热疗的疗效及相关机制

金纳米棒因其独特的光电特性有望成为临床无创光热治疗的理想光敏材料。然而,金纳米棒的表面性质,如与蛋白质等生物分子的非特异性吸附作用,直接影响着纳米粒子在临床应用中的稳定性。作者采用两性离子谷胱甘肽通过强健Au-S键形成修饰金纳米棒,考察其与蛋白质的相互作用及其应用于肿瘤细胞近红外光热治疗的效果,并对其红外光敏热疗相关机制进行了初步探索,希望为金纳米棒的临床应用提供研究基础。     

RGD/FA双靶纳米金棒的制备及其在肿瘤细胞协同靶向成像与光热治疗中的应用

目的:通过制备RGD/FA双靶纳米金考察其与高表达整合素与叶酸受体B16细胞的协同靶向成像与热疗作用;方法:采用功能化PEG分子将靶向小分子RGD与叶酸通过强健Au-S键连接至纳米金棒表面,利用激光共聚焦与808 nm近红外激光器评价修饰纳米金的协同靶向作用;结果:RGD与叶酸分子被成功连接于纳米金表面,且双靶纳米金对小鼠黑色素瘤细胞具有较好的协同靶向作用;结论:同时靶向同一肿瘤细胞的不同表位,可克服单一靶向功能化纳米粒子难以在肿瘤位点有效积累的问题,本研究为多功能纳米金棒在临床肿瘤早期诊断与光热治疗中的应用提供研究基础。     

Au NPs/UCNPs复合纳米体系用于荧光成像引导下的肿瘤光热治疗的研究进展

近红外(NIR)光诱导的光热治疗(PTT)因其无创、非侵入、毒副作用低、可精准靶向治疗等特性,已成为肿瘤精准治疗的新型手段。凭借其独特的表面等离激元共振(SPR)特性及其高效的光热转换效率、生物毒性与良好的光稳定性,金纳米颗粒(Au NPs)已成为理想的光热治疗剂。而高质量成像技术是实现有效光热治疗的可靠有力的工具,尤其是多模态成像技术,比起单一成像方式具有更卓越的性能,为更全面、更精准的肿瘤成像提供了可能,显著提高了非侵入性医学治疗的潜力。NIR光激发的稀土上转换纳米颗粒(UCNPs),因其丰富的4f电子结构展现出磁性、荧光、X射线衰减和放射等多功能特性,使其作为造影剂在多模态成像领域展现了重要的应用前景。因此,构建NIR光诱导的Au NPs/UCNPs复合纳米体系,可用于多模态成像引导下的光热治疗,有望成为癌症诊疗的一种新策略。本文简单介绍了Au NPs、UCNPs的光学特性,重点综述了NIR光诱导的UCNPs-Au NPs(纳米壳、纳米棒、纳米团簇)复合纳米体系在癌症光热治疗领域的最新研究进展,并对其实现诊疗一体化的未来进行了展望。     

纳米金在抗肿瘤研究中的应用

肿瘤的早期诊断依然是目前需要攻克的难关,现有的抗肿瘤药物因具有较大毒性和缺乏特异性而存在很大的局限性。纳米金能够被多种基团修饰从而获得对肿瘤细胞的靶向性,已成为当前抗肿瘤研究的热点。研究发现纳米金可以通过抑制血管生成、携带抗肿瘤药物以及光热效应等达到肿瘤治疗的目的,同时由于修饰后的纳米金对肿瘤细胞具有靶向性,在肿瘤的早期诊断方面也具有重要的意义。纳米金在体内的分布和代谢与其大小、形态及所带电荷有关,有关纳米金毒性和生物相容性性的评价,还有待于进一步研究。     

光及光热纳米材料在生物传感、药物靶向运输和生物成像中的应用

纳米材料是纳米科学技术的重要发展方向之一。纳米材料的结构赋予了其独特的光学性质,纳米尺寸方便其经EPR效应或表面修饰靶向肿瘤组织,并且部分纳米材料可吸收外部光源能量,将其转化为热能。因此,纳米材料在光学传感器、生物成像、药物靶向运输及肿瘤光热治疗中的应用十分广泛。综述主要分类介绍了光学纳米材料和光热纳米材料的优异特性,阐述了其在以上领域中的应用;最后,对纳米材料未来的发展作出了展望。     

棒状金纳米颗粒探针的制备

利用晶种生长法制备金纳米棒,在其表面依次用聚丙烯酸(PAA)和聚乙烯亚胺(PEI)修饰,降低了CTAB的细胞毒性,同时也增强了金纳米棒在盐和细胞培养液中的稳定性。又利用静电吸附作用,成功的将DNA连接到了金纳米棒的表面,制备了DNA传感器,可用于生物研究。     

综述——基于纳米材料的生物检测与医学诊断技术：功能化量子点在肿瘤活体成像中的应用

量子点表面经生物分子或药物分子修饰而具有生物功能．功能化量子点具有独特的光学性质和生物相容性,在生物医学光学诊断和治疗领域具有广泛的应用．本文简要介绍了功能化量子点制备及修饰方法,综合评述了量子点在肿瘤活体诊断和治疗中的应用,包括活体淋巴结成像、血管动态成像、肿瘤成像和抗肿瘤药物示踪等,讨论了功能化量子点在肿瘤活体诊断和治疗中的应用前景以及面临的挑战．     

金属有机骨架在肿瘤治疗中的应用进展

金属有机骨架(metal-organic frameworks,MOFs)是一类由金属结点和有机配体配位组装而成的晶体材料.金属有机骨架具有孔隙度大、孔径和尺寸可调、生物相容性好、成分可调、表面可修饰等优越性能,在肿瘤治疗领域具有重要的应用潜力.本文首先介绍了金属有机骨架用于小分子药物、生物大分子药物等药物递送体系的构建方法.随后,我们总结了近年来MOFs药物递送体系在肿瘤的化学治疗、光动力学治疗、放射性治疗、免疫治疗、光热治疗等方面的应用进展.最后,本文总结了MOFs在肿瘤治疗方面的进展和特点,并展望了MOFs在肿瘤治疗领域的研究挑战和应用前景.     

创新纳米药物在生物医学领域的现状与展望

随着纳米技术的发展及其在生物医学等交叉领域的不断深入,纳米医学进入了空前繁盛的时代.基于有机、无机以及杂化纳米颗粒的多样化发展,具有独特物理化学性质的纳米制剂在疾病的诊断、治疗、生物成像等多个方面具有广泛的应用.纳米药物的发展也已迈入了新的阶段.通过材料创新、表面修饰、结构设计、新型仿生材料研制、内源性纳米囊泡提取等多种技术手段,传统上作为单一药物载体的纳米颗粒被赋予了多种新功能的同时,其在机体内的作用活性也得到了改善.新一代的创新型纳米药物为癌症等重大疾病的诊断及治疗提供了新的契机.     

几种先进的光学纳米探针在光学生物诊疗中的应用

先进的光学纳米探针对于生物组织的光学成像、疾病的诊断和治疗具有巨大的促进作用,尤其是对于生物体分子水平活动的动态信息的深入了解。新型的光学探针如纳米金棒、上转换纳米颗粒和氧化石墨烯等,能克服传统探针的一些不足,具有较高的对比度、稳定性和生物兼容性,而且还拥有深层组织成像和实时动态成像的能力。本文对这些纳米光学探针的光学性质和优点进行了简要的介绍,并通过综述作者及其他研究者在过去几年的研究成果,总结这些先进的纳米探针在生物成像和医学诊断、治疗方面的应用,并展望其应用前景。     

Light-Activatable Gold Nanoshells for Drug Delivery Applications

Gold nanoshells (AuNSs) are currently being investigated as nanocarriers for drug delivery systems and have both diagnostic and therapeutic applications, including photothermal ablation, hyperthermia, drug delivery, and diagnostic imaging, particularly in oncology. AuNSs are valuable for their localized surface plasmon resonance, biocompatibility, low immunogenicity, and facile functionalization. AuNSs used for drug delivery can be spatially and temporally triggered to release controlled quantities of drugs inside the target cells when illuminated with a near-infrared (NIR) laser. Recently, many research groups have demonstrated that these AuNS complexes are able to deliver antitumor drugs (e.g., doxorubicin, paclitaxel, small interfering RNA, and single-stranded DNA) into cancer cells, which enhances the efficacy of treatment. AuNSs can also be functionalized with active targeting ligands such as antibodies, aptamers, and peptides to increase the particles’ specific binding to the desired targets. This article reviews the current research on NIR light-activatable AuNSs used as nanocarriers for drug delivery systems and cancer theranostics.     

Peptide-conjugated gold nanorods for nuclear targeting

Resonant electron oscillations on the surface of noble metal nanoparticles (Au, Ag, Cu) create the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) that greatly enhances the absorption and Rayleigh (Mie) scattering of light by these particles. By adjusting the size and shape of the particles from spheres to rods, the SPR absorption and scattering can be tuned from the visible to the near-infrared region (NIR) where biologic tissues are relatively transparent. Further, gold nanorods greatly enhance surface Raman scattering of adsorbed molecules. These unique properties make gold nanorods especially attractive as optical sensors for biological and medical applications. In the present work, gold nanorods are covalently conjugated with a nuclear localization signal peptide through a thioalkyl-triazole linker and incubated with an immortalized benign epithelial cell line and an oral cancer cell line. Dark field light SPR scattering images demonstrate that nanorods are located in both the cytoplasm and nucleus of both cell lines. Single cell micro-Raman spectra reveal enhanced Raman bands of the peptide as well as molecules in the cytoplasm and the nucleus. Further, the Raman spectra reveal a difference between benign and cancer cell lines. This work represents an important step toward both imaging and Raman-based intracellular biosensing with covalently linked ligand-nanorod probes.     

Review of Some Interesting Surface Plasmon Resonance-enhanced Properties of Noble Metal Nanoparticles and Their Applications to Biosystems

Noble metal, especially gold (Au) and silver (Ag) nanoparticles exhibit unique and tunable optical properties on account of their surface plasmon resonance (SPR). In this review, we discuss the SPR-enhanced optical properties of noble metal nanoparticles, with an emphasis on the recent advances in the utility of these plasmonic properties in molecular-specific imaging and sensing, photo-diagnostics, and selective photothermal therapy. The strongly enhanced SPR scattering from Au nanoparticles makes them useful as bright optical tags for molecular-specific biological imaging and detection using simple dark-field optical microscopy. On the other hand, the SPR absorption of the nanoparticles has allowed their use in the selective laser photothermal therapy of cancer. We also discuss the sensitivity of the nanoparticle SPR frequency to the local medium dielectric constant, which has been successfully exploited for the optical sensing of chemical and biological analytes. Plasmon coupling between metal nanoparticle pairs is also discussed, which forms the basis for nanoparticle assembly-based biodiagnostics and the plasmon ruler for dynamic measurement of nanoscale distances in biological systems.     

金纳米棒的光学性质及其在生物医学领域的应用

简要介绍金纳米棒的光学性质和合成方法,重点阐述其在生物医学领域研究的最新进展,并对其今后的研究方向进行展望．金纳米棒是一种胶囊状的金纳米颗粒,具有一个横向等离子共振吸收峰和一个纵向等离子共振吸收峰,分别对应其横轴和纵轴两个特征尺寸．通过调节金纳米棒的长径比,纵向等离子共振吸收峰可由可见光区跨越至近红外光区．金纳米棒这一独特的光学性质在生物和化学传感方面有着广泛而重要的应用前景．     

Au nanostructures: an emerging prospect in cancer theranostics

Au nanoparticles have been used in biomedical applications since ancient times. However, the rapid development of nanotechnology over the past century has led to recognition of the great potential of Au nanoparticles in a wide range of applications. Advanced fabrication techniques allow us to synthesize a variety of Au nanostructures possessing physiochemical properties that can be exploited for different purposes. Functionalization of the surface of Au nanoparticles further eases their application in various roles. These advantages of Au nanoparticles make them particularly suited for cancer treatment and diagnosis. The small size of Au particles enables them to preferentially accumulate at tumor sites to achieve in vivo targeting after systemic administration. Efficient light absorption followed by rapid heat conversion makes them very promising in photothermal therapy. The facile surface chemistry of Au nanoparticles eases delivery of drugs, ligands or imaging contrast agents in vivo. In this review, we summarize recent development of Au nanoparticles in cancer theranostics including imaging-based detection, photothermal therapy, chemical therapy and drug delivery. The multifunctional nature of Au nanoparticles means they hold great promise as novel anti-cancer therapeutics.     

Controlled-release system of single-stranded DNA triggered by the photothermal effect of gold nanorods and its in vivo application

Gold nanorods have strong absorption bands in the near-infrared region, in which light penetrates deeply into tissues. The absorbed light energy is converted into heat by gold nanorods, the so-called 'photothermal effect'. Hence, gold nanorods are expected to act not only as on-demand thermal converters for photothermal therapy but also as controllers of a drug-release system responding to irradiation by near-infrared light. To achieve a controlled-release system that can be triggered by light irradiation, double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) was modified on gold nanorods. When the dsDNA-modified gold nanorods were irradiated by near-infrared light, the single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) was released from gold nanorods due to the photothermal effect. The amount of released ssDNA was dependent upon the power and exposure time of light irradiation. Release of ssDNA was also observed in tumors grown on mice after light irradiation. Such a controlled-release system of oligonucleotide triggered by the photothermal effect could expand the applications of gold nanorods that have unique optical characteristics in medicinal fields.     

Controlled release of PEG chain from gold nanorods: Targeted delivery to tumor

Gold nanorods exhibit strong absorbance of light in the near infrared region, which penetrates deeply into tissues. Since the absorbed light energy is converted into heat, gold nanorods are expected to act as a contrast agent for in vivo bioimaging and as a thermal converter for photothermal therapy. To construct a gold nanorod targeted delivery system for tumor a peptide substrate for urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA), expressed specifically on malignant tumors, was inserted between the PEG chain and the surface of the gold nanorods. In other words, we constructed PEG–peptide-modified gold nanorods. After mixing the gold nanorods with uPA, the PEG chain was released from the surface of the gold and subsequently nanorod aggregation took place. The formation of the aggregation was monitored as a decrease in light absorption at 900 nm. Tumor homogenate induced a significant decrease in this absorption. Larger amount of the PEG–peptide-modified gold nanorods bound to cells expressing uPA in vitro compared with control gold nanorods, which had scrambled sequence of the peptide. The PEG–peptide-modified gold nanorods showed higher accumulation in tumor than the control after they were injected intravenously into tumor-bearing mice, however, the density of the peptide on the surface of the gold nanorods was a key factor of their biodistributions. This targeted delivery system, which responds to uPA activity, is expected to be a powerful tool for tumor bioimaging and photothermal tumor therapy.     

Plasmonic Optical Properties and Applications of Metal Nanostructures

In this review article, we provide an overview of recent research activities in the study of plasmonic optical properties of metal nanostructures with emphasis on understanding the relation between surface plasmon absorption and structure. Both experimental results and theoretical calculations have indicated that the plasmonic absorption strongly depends on the detailed structure of the nanomaterials. Examples discussed include spherical nanoparticles, nanorods, nanowires, hollow nanospheres, aggregates, and nanocages. Plasmon–phonon coupling measured from dynamic studies as a function of particle size, shape, and aggregation state is also reviewed. The fascinating optical properties of metal nanostructures find important applications in a number of technological areas including surface plasmon resonance, surface-enhanced Raman scattering, and photothermal imaging and therapy. Their novel optical properties and emerging applications are illustrated using specific examples from recent literature. The case of hollow nanosphere structures is highlighted to illustrate their unique features and advantages for some of these applications.     

Recent advances in synthesis and surface modification of lanthanide-doped upconversion nanoparticles for biomedical applications

Lanthanide (Ln)-doped upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) with appropriate surface modification can be used for a wide range of biomedical applications such as bio-detection, cancer therapy, bio-labeling, fluorescence imaging, magnetic resonance imaging and drug delivery. The upconversion phenomenon exhibited by Ln-doped UCNPs renders them tremendous advantages in biological applications over other types of fluorescent materials (e.g., organic dyes, fluorescent proteins, gold nanoparticles, quantum dots, and luminescent transition metal complexes) for: (i) enhanced tissue penetration depths achieved by near-infrared (NIR) excitation; (ii) improved stability against photobleaching, photoblinking and photochemical degradation; (iii) non-photodamaging to DNA/RNA due to lower excitation light energy; (iv) lower cytotoxicity; and (v) higher detection sensitivity. Ln-doped UCNPs are therefore attracting increasing attentions in recent years. In this review, we present recent advances in the synthesis of Ln-doped UCNPs and their surface modification, as well as their emerging applications in biomedicine. The future prospects of Ln-doped UCNPs for biomedical applications are also discussed.     

Sensitive and Label-Free Detection of DNA by Surface Plasmon Resonance

While an array of technologies based on radioactive labels or luminescent tags are dominant in modern biomedical research on DNA, surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and SPR imaging measurements are sensitive, rapid, and label-free. This review summarizes recent advances in the development of SPR and coupled techniques and their applications in DNA research, including the gene analysis at trace levels and studies of DNA–protein and DNA–drug interactions.