title: Green and facile synthesis of a theranostic nanoprobe with intrinsic biosafety and targeting abilities.
abstract: Traditional targeting nanoprobes suffer from the risks of partial loss of targeting activity and nanoparticle aggregation induced by post-synthetic modifications, ambiguous toxicity, tedious synthesis procedures and environmentally hazardous processes. Herein, we report a green and facile strategy to fabricate transferrin-indocyanine green nanoparticles as a smart theranostic agent with intrinsic biosafety and active targeting abilities for near-infrared fluorescent imaging and photothermal therapy of tumors. Simple mixing of transferrin and indocyanine green enables their self-assembly in aqueous solution to form nanoparticles with excellent water solubility, colloidal stability, favorable biocompatibility and impressive active targeting theranostic effects in vitro and in vivo. The transferrin-indocyanine green nanoparticles show great potential in theranostic applications of tumors in clinical therapy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin 300052, China.
authors.forename: Cai
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yan-Yan
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.forename: Xuejun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Chunshui
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Shao-Kai
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Xiu-Ping
authors.initials: XP
authors.lastname: Yan
mesh_terms: D016475:3T3 Cells; D000818:Animals; D004396:Coloring Agents; D055772:Green Chemistry Technology; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D007208:Indocyanine Green / Q000737:chemistry*; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008819:Mice, Nude; D053758:Nanoparticles; D010789:Phototherapy; D019265:Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared; D000068936:Theranostic Nanomedicine; D014168:Transferrin / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D004396:Coloring Agents; D014168:Transferrin; D007208:Indocyanine Green