Near-infrared dye-loaded magnetic nanoparticles as photoacoustic contrast agent for enhanced tumor imaging.
Objective:Photoacoustic (PA) tomography (PAT) has attracted extensive interest because of its optical absorption contrast and ultrasonic detection. This study aims to develop a biocompatible and biodegradable PA contrast agent particularly promising for clinical applications in human body.Methods:In this study, we presented a PA contrast agent: 1, 2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine-N-[methoxy (polyethylene glycol)] (DSPE-PEG)-coated superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO) nanoparticles (NPs) loaded with indocyanine green (ICG). We used ICG and SPIO NPs because both drugs are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Given the strong absorption of near-infrared laser pulses, SPIO@DSPE-PEG/ICG NPs with a uniform diameter of ~28 nm could significantly enhance PA signals.Results:We demonstrated the contrast enhancement of these NPs in phantom and animal experiments, in which thein vivocirculation time of SPIO@DSPE-PEG/ICG NPs was considerably longer than that of free ICG. These novel NPs also displayed a high efficiency of tumor targeting.Conclusions:SPIO@DSPE-PEG/ICG NPs are promising PAT contrast agents for clinical applications.
Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
Chuang
C
Gao
Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
Zi-Jian
ZJ
Deng
Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
Dong
D
Peng
Nanomedicine and Biosensor Laboratory, School of Life Science and Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150080, China.
Yu-Shen
YS
Jin
Nanomedicine and Biosensor Laboratory, School of Life Science and Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150080, China.
Yan
Y
Ma
Nanomedicine and Biosensor Laboratory, School of Life Science and Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150080, China.
Yan-Yan
YY
Li
Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
Yu-Kun
YK
Zhu
Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
Jian-Zhong
JZ
Xi
Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
Jie
J
Tian
Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
Zhi-Fei
ZF
Dai
Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
Chang-Hui
CH
Li
Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
Xiao-Long
XL
Liang
Indocyanine green; magnetic nanoparticles; photoacoustic tomography; tumor imaging