Cyclic RGD peptide-labeled upconversion nanophosphors for tumor cell-targeted imaging.
One of the great challenges of oncology is to improve methods for early tumor detection. Thus tumor cell-targeted optical imaging has been intensively studied. Bioimaging with upconversion (UC) phosphors (UCPs) is of considerable interest due to a variety of possible applications taking advantage of infrared-to-visible luminescence. Here we report for the first time tumor cell-targeted UC imaging using UCPs modified with cyclic RGD peptide (RGD-Y2O3). Cyclic RGD peptide binds specifically to integrin alphavbeta3 which is highly expressed in a tumor cell surface of certain cancer types but not in normal tissues. Since UC emission from RGD-Y2O3 was observed for U87MG cancer cell (high integrin alphavbeta3 expression), but not for MCF-7 cancer cell (low integrin alphavbeta3 expression), this UC imaging is considered to be integrin alphavbeta3 specific. The non-invasive imaging of integrin alphavbeta3 expression using UCP-based probes will have great potential in cancer imaging in general in living subjects.
Zako
Tamotsu
T
Bioengineering Laboratory, RIKEN Institute, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan. zako@riken.jp
Nagata
Hiroyasu
H
Terada
Naofumi
N
Utsumi
Arata
A
Sakono
Masafumi
M
Yohda
Masafumi
M
Ueda
Hiroshi
H
Soga
Kohei
K
Maeda
Mizuo
M
D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D006801:Humans; D007259:Infrared Rays; D008853:Microscopy / Q000379:methods; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000378:metabolism; D010456:Peptides, Cyclic / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D010758:Phosphorus / Q000737:chemistry*; D013194:Staining and Labeling
D010456:Peptides, Cyclic; C507169:cyclic arginine-glycine-aspartic acid peptide; D010758:Phosphorus