An individually coated near-infrared fluorescent protein as a safe and robust nanoprobe for in vivo imaging.
A prerequisite for in vivo fluorescence imaging is the safety of fluorescent probes. Among all fluorescent probes, fluorescent proteins (FPs) might be the safest ones, which have been widely used in biological sciences at the gene level. But FPs have not been used in vivo in the purified form yet due to the instability of proteins. Here, we individually coat near-infrared (NIR) FPs (NIRFPs) with a silica nanoshell, resulting in NIRFP@silica, one of the safest and brightest NIR fluorescent nanoprobes with a quantum yield of 0.33 for in vivo imaging. The silica shell not only protects NIRFPs from denaturation and metabolic digestion, but also enhances the quantum yield and photostability of the coated NIRFPs. When injected via the tail vein, NIRFP@silica NPs can distribute all over the mouse body, and then can be efficiently eliminated through urine in 24 h, demonstrating its potential applications as a safe and robust NIR fluorescence probe for whole body imaging.
Institute of Nanochemistry and Nanobiology, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China. ancao@shu.edu.cn hwang@shu.edu.cn.
Yu
Y
Yang
Kun
K
Xiang
Yi-Xin
YX
Yang
Yan-Wen
YW
Wang
Xin
X
Zhang
Yangdong
Y
Cui
Haifang
H
Wang
Qing-Qing
QQ
Zhu
Liqiang
L
Fan
Yuanfang
Y
Liu
Aoneng
A
Cao
D000818:Animals; D018938:Caco-2 Cells; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D056945:Hep G2 Cells; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000473:pathology; D008164:Luminescent Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008819:Mice, Nude; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000633:toxicity; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology; D012822:Silicon Dioxide / Q000737:chemistry; D019265:Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared; D014183:Transplantation, Heterologous
D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D008164:Luminescent Proteins; D012822:Silicon Dioxide