title: In vivo NIR imaging with PbS quantum dots entrapped in biodegradable micelles.
abstract: In this article, we firstly synthesized oil-soluble PbS quantum dots (QDs) emitting in the near-infrared (NIR) spectral range through a two-phase method, which exhibit a conveniently tunable photoluminescence (PL) emission (from ~750 to 872 nm) with a narrow PL bandwidth, as well as a high (up to 40%) PL quantum yield (QY). Next, the as-prepared oil-soluble NIR PbS QDs were applied to the in vivo imaging of tumors by entrapping in biodegradable micelles (N-succinyl-N'-octyl nanomicelles, SOC) which had hydrophobic inner cores. Transmission electron microscope results show well dispersed spherical shaped QDs-loaded SOC micelles with 100 nm diameter. The QY of PbS QDs entrapped into SOC has no significant change compared to free QDs. Besides, both in vitro and in vivo acute toxicity results demonstrated that the QDs-loaded micelles have low cytotoxicity. Furthermore, in vivo imaging of PbS QDs-loaded SOC injected intravenously into tumor-bearing nude mice showed the NIR QDs-loaded micelles can accumulate in the tumor tissue due to the enhanced permeability and retention effect of SOC micelles. These results confirm that the as-prepared PbS QDs could be used as fluorescence probes to study the biodistribution of nanocarriers and their intracellular pathways, as well as their passive targeted behavior to tumors in preclinical research.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, School of Life Science and Technology, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: Hongyan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Dawei
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.forename: Bing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.forename: Liping
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Didel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mahounga
authors.forename: Zhiyu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.forename: Yueqing
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gu
mesh_terms: D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D007854:Lead / Q000737:chemistry*; D008823:Micelles; D045663:Quantum Dots; D019265:Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared / Q000379:methods*; D013440:Sulfides / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D008823:Micelles; D013440:Sulfides; C018391:lead sulfide; D007854:Lead