title: Near-infrared emitting fluorescent nanocrystals-labeled natural killer cells as a platform technology for the optical imaging of immunotherapeutic cells-based cancer therapy.
abstract: This study describes the development of near-infrared optical imaging technology for the monitoring of immunotherapeutic cell-based cancer therapy using natural killer (NK) cells labeled with fluorescent nanocrystals. Although NK cell-based immunotherapeutic strategies have drawn interest as potent preclinical or clinical methods of cancer therapy, there are few reports documenting the molecular imaging of NK cell-based cancer therapy, primarily due to the difficulty of labeling of NK cells with imaging probes. Human natural killer cells (NK92MI) were labeled with anti-human CD56 antibody-coated quantum dots (QD705) for fluorescence imaging. FACS analysis showed that the NK92MI cells labeled with anti-human CD56 antibody-coated QD705 have no effect on the cell viability. The effect of anti-human CD56 antibody-coated QD705 labeling on the NK92MI cell function was investigated by measuring interferon gamma (IFN-gamma) production and cytolytic activity. Finally, the NK92MI cells labeled with anti-human CD56 antibody-coated QD705 showed a therapeutic effect similar to that of unlabeled NK92MI cells. Images of intratumorally injected NK92MI cells labeled with anti-human CD56 antibody-coated could be acquired using near-infrared optical imaging both in vivo and in vitro. This result demonstrates that the immunotherapeutic cells labeled with fluorescent nanocrystals can be a versatile platform for the effective tracking of injected therapeutic cells using optical imaging technology, which is very important in cell-based cancer therapies.
authors.affiliation: BioNanotechnology Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, 52 Eoeun-dong, Yusung-gu, Daejeon 305-333, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Yong Taik
authors.initials: YT
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.forename: Mi Young
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.forename: Young-Woock
authors.initials: YW
authors.lastname: Noh
authors.forename: Jin Woong
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.forename: Bong Hyun
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Chung
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000906:Antibodies / Q000276:immunology; D019002:CD56 Antigen / Q000276:immunology; D002460:Cell Line; D002470:Cell Survival; D003602:Cytotoxicity, Immunologic; D005260:Female; D005453:Fluorescence; D006801:Humans; D016219:Immunotherapy, Adoptive / Q000379:methods*; D007259:Infrared Rays; D007694:Killer Cells, Natural / Q000276:immunology*; D051379:Mice; D008819:Mice, Nude; D057054:Molecular Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology* / Q000628:therapy*; D045663:Quantum Dots; D013194:Staining and Labeling
chemical_list: D000906:Antibodies; D019002:CD56 Antigen