title: Gadolinium-functionalized aggregation-induced emission dots as dual-modality probes for cancer metastasis study.
abstract: Understanding the localization and engraftment of tumor cells at postintravasation stage of metastasis is of high importance in cancer diagnosis and treatment. Advanced fluorescent probes and facile methodologies for cell tracing play a key role in metastasis studies. In this work, we design and synthesize a dual-modality imaging dots with both optical and magnetic contrast through integration of a magnetic resonance imaging reagent, gadolinium(III), into a novel long-term cell tracing probe with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) in far-red/near-infrared region. The obtained fluorescent-magnetic AIE dots have both high fluorescence quantum yield (25%) and T1 relaxivity (7.91 mM(-1) s(-1) ) in aqueous suspension. After further conjugation with a cell membrane penetrating peptide, the dual-modality dots can be efficiently internalized into living cells. The gadolinium(III) allows accurate quantification of biodistribution of cancer cells via intraveneous injection, while the high fluorescence provides engraftment information of cells at single cellular level. The dual-modality AIE dots show obvious synergistic advantages over either single imaging modality and hold great promises in advanced biomedical studies.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, 3 Research Link, 117602, Singapore.
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: Chandrasekharan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Prashant
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.forename: Chang-Tong
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Ben Zhong
authors.initials: BZ
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D058948:Cell Tracking / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D057846:Cell-Penetrating Peptides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D056831:Coordination Complexes / Q000737:chemistry; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D005682:Gadolinium / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D016513:Mice, SCID; D057054:Molecular Imaging; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis / Q000473:pathology*; D010714:Phosphatidylethanolamines / Q000737:chemistry; D011092:Polyethylene Glycols / Q000737:chemistry; D051381:Rats; D014018:Tissue Distribution
chemical_list: D057846:Cell-Penetrating Peptides; D056831:Coordination Complexes; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D010714:Phosphatidylethanolamines; D011092:Polyethylene Glycols; D005682:Gadolinium
keywords: AIE dots; cancer metastasis; cell tracing; dual-modality; fluorescence imaging; gadolinium; magnetic resonance imaging