title: Biodistribution of arctigenin-loaded nanoparticles designed for multimodal imaging.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Tracking targets of natural products is one of the most challenging issues in fields ranging from pharmacognosy to biomedicine. It is widely recognized that the biocompatible nanoparticle (NP) could function as a "key" that opens the target "lock".
  
  
  RESULTS
  We report a functionalized poly-lysine NP technique that can monitor the target protein of arctigenin (ATG) in vivo non-invasively. The NPs were synthesized, and their morphologies and surface chemical properties were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), laser particle size analysis and atomic force microscopy (AFM). In addition, we studied the localization of ATG at the level of the cell and the whole animal (zebrafish and mice). We demonstrated that fluorescent NPs could be ideal carriers in the development of a feasible method for target identification. The distributions of the target proteins were found to be consistent with the pharmacological action of ATG at the cellular and whole-organism levels.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results indicated that functionalized poly-lysine NPs could be valuable in the multimodal imaging of arctigenin.
authors.affiliation: College of Pharmacy, State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Qingxin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.affiliation: College of Pharmacy, State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yuanyuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, College of Life Science, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, China.
authors.forename: Yanan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Tianjin Key Laboratory of Tumor Microenvironment and Neurovascular Regulation, Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, China.
authors.forename: Xu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: College of Pharmacy, State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: College of Pharmacy, State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xiaoyao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: College of Pharmacy, State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Zengyong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: College of Pharmacy, State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Weiya
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: College of Pharmacy, State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tao
authors.affiliation: College of Pharmacy, State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: College of Pharmacy, State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Tianjin Key Laboratory of Tumor Microenvironment and Neurovascular Regulation, Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, China.
authors.forename: Dongyan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, College of Life Science, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, China. xzfeng@nankai.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xizeng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: College of Pharmacy, State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, People's Republic of China. gangbai@nankai.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bai
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D004337:Drug Carriers / Q000737:chemistry*; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D005663:Furans / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D006801:Humans; D007814:Larva; D017705:Lignans / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; D064847:Multimodal Imaging; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D010316:Particle Size; D011107:Polylysine / Q000737:chemistry; D014018:Tissue Distribution; D015027:Zebrafish
chemical_list: D004337:Drug Carriers; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D005663:Furans; D017705:Lignans; D011107:Polylysine; C071942:arctigenin
keywords: Arctigenin; Localization; Nanoparticles; Self-assembly; Target identification