title: Post-Synthesis Incorporation of ⁶⁴Cu in CuS Nanocrystals to Radiolabel Photothermal Probes: A Feasible Approach for Clinics.
abstract: We report a simple method for the incorporation of Cu(I) or (64)Cu(I) radionuclides in covellite nanocrystals (CuS NCs). After the in situ reduction of Cu(II) or (64)Cu(II) ions by ascorbic acid, their incorporation in PEG-coated CuS NCs takes place at room temperature. In all the reaction steps, the stability of the NCs under physiological conditions was ensured. The copper incorporation reaction could also take place on CuS NCs bearing biotin molecules at their surface, with no detrimental effects on the specific binding affinity of the NCs toward streptavidin after incorporation. At low loading of Cu ions, the strong near-infrared (NIR) absorption band of the starting CuS NCs was essentially preserved, which allowed for efficient plasmonic photothermal therapy. The combined presence in the NCs of (64)Cu ions, well suitable for positron emission tomography, and of free carriers responsible for the NIR absorption, should enable their theranostic use as radiotracers and as photothermal probes in tumor ablation treatments. Moreover, the simplicity of the preparation scheme, which involves the use of radioactive species only as a last step, makes the protocol easily transferable to the clinical practice.
authors.affiliation: Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia , Via Morego 30, 16163, Genova, Italy.|Optical Materials Engineering Laboratory, ETH Zurich , 8092 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Riedinger
authors.affiliation: Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia , Via Morego 30, 16163, Genova, Italy.
authors.forename: Tommaso
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Avellini
authors.affiliation: Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia , Via Morego 30, 16163, Genova, Italy.
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Curcio
authors.affiliation: Nuclear Medicine Unit, Oncology and Advanced Technologies Department, Arcispedale Santa Maria Nuova-IRCCS, Viale Risorgimento 80, 42121, Reggio Emilia, Italy.
authors.forename: Mattia
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Asti
authors.affiliation: Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia , Via Morego 30, 16163, Genova, Italy.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia , Via Morego 30, 16163, Genova, Italy.
authors.forename: Renyong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tu
authors.affiliation: Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia , Via Morego 30, 16163, Genova, Italy.
authors.forename: Sergio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Marras
authors.affiliation: Division of Nuclear Medicine, Istituto Nazionale per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori, Via Venezian 1, 20133 Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: Alice
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lorenzoni
authors.affiliation: Nuclear Medicine Unit, Oncology and Advanced Technologies Department, Arcispedale Santa Maria Nuova-IRCCS, Viale Risorgimento 80, 42121, Reggio Emilia, Italy.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rubagotti
authors.affiliation: Nuclear Medicine Unit, Oncology and Advanced Technologies Department, Arcispedale Santa Maria Nuova-IRCCS, Viale Risorgimento 80, 42121, Reggio Emilia, Italy.
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Iori
authors.affiliation: Nuclear Medicine Unit, Oncology and Advanced Technologies Department, Arcispedale Santa Maria Nuova-IRCCS, Viale Risorgimento 80, 42121, Reggio Emilia, Italy.
authors.forename: Pier Cesare
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Capponi
authors.affiliation: Nuclear Medicine Unit, Oncology and Advanced Technologies Department, Arcispedale Santa Maria Nuova-IRCCS, Viale Risorgimento 80, 42121, Reggio Emilia, Italy.
authors.forename: Annibale
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Versari
authors.affiliation: Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia , Via Morego 30, 16163, Genova, Italy.
authors.forename: Liberato
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Manna
authors.affiliation: Division of Nuclear Medicine, Istituto Nazionale per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori, Via Venezian 1, 20133 Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: Ettore
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Seregni
authors.affiliation: Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia , Via Morego 30, 16163, Genova, Italy.
authors.forename: Teresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Pellegrino
mesh_terms: D003300:Copper / Q000737:chemistry*; D003301:Copper Radioisotopes / Q000737:chemistry*; D004587:Electrophoresis, Agar Gel; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D015335:Molecular Probes; D053758:Nanoparticles
chemical_list: D003301:Copper Radioisotopes; D015335:Molecular Probes; D003300:Copper; C017846:cupric sulfide