title: Manipulating the power of an additional phase: a flower-like Au-Fe3O4 optical nanosensor for imaging protease expressions in vivo.
abstract: We and others have recently proposed the synthesis of composite nanoparticles that offer strongly enhanced functionality. Here we have used a flower-shaped Au-Fe(3)O(4) nanoparticle as a template to construct an optical probe containing Cy5.5-GPLGVRG-TDOPA on the iron oxide surface and SH-PEG(5000) on the gold surface that can be specifically activated by matrix metalloproteinases expressed in tumors. Gold nanoparticles have excellent quenching properties, but labile surface chemistry in vivo; on the other hand, iron oxide nanoparticles afford robust surface chemistry, but are suboptimal as energy receptors. By a marriage of the two, we have produced a unified structure with performance that is unachievable with the separate components. Our results are a further demonstration that the architecture of nanoparticles can be modulated to tailor their function as molecular imaging/therapeutic agents.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Molecular Imaging and Nanomedicine, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA.
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Fan
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aronova
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Qimeng
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Quan
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Guofeng
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Ki-Young
authors.initials: KY
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Kwangmeyung
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Xiaolian
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Seulki
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Shouheng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Leapman
authors.forename: Xiaoyuan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005290:Ferric Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles; D051379:Mice; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; D036103:Nanotechnology; D010447:Peptide Hydrolases / Q000378:metabolism*; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence; D023041:Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays
chemical_list: D005290:Ferric Compounds; C000499:ferric oxide; D006046:Gold; D010447:Peptide Hydrolases