title: Improved cellular specificity of plasmonic nanobubbles versus nanoparticles in heterogeneous cell systems.
abstract: The limited specificity of nanoparticle (NP) uptake by target cells associated with a disease is one of the principal challenges of nanomedicine. Using the threshold mechanism of plasmonic nanobubble (PNB) generation and enhanced accumulation and clustering of gold nanoparticles in target cells, we increased the specificity of PNB generation and detection in target versus non-target cells by more than one order of magnitude compared to the specificity of NP uptake by the same cells. This improved cellular specificity of PNBs was demonstrated in six different cell models representing diverse molecular targets such as epidermal growth factor receptor, CD3 receptor, prostate specific membrane antigen and mucin molecule MUC1. Thus PNBs may be a universal method and nano-agent that overcome the problem of non-specific uptake of NPs by non-target cells and improve the specificity of NP-based diagnostics, therapeutics and theranostics at the cell level.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Rice University, Houston, Texas, United States of America.
authors.forename: Ekaterina Y
authors.initials: EY
authors.lastname: Lukianova-Hleb
authors.forename: Xiaoyang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.forename: Pamela E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Constantinou
authors.forename: Brian P
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Danysh
authors.forename: Derek L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Shenefelt
authors.forename: Daniel D
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Carson
authors.forename: Mary C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Farach-Carson
authors.forename: Vladimir A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Kulchitsky
authors.forename: Xiangwei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Daniel S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Wagner
authors.forename: Dmitri O
authors.initials: DO
authors.lastname: Lapotko
mesh_terms: D001692:Biological Transport; D002460:Cell Line; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles; D053769:Nanocapsules; D055620:Optical Phenomena; D009928:Organ Specificity; D013379:Substrate Specificity
chemical_list: D053769:Nanocapsules; D006046:Gold