Issue 42, 2018

Protein-modified conjugated polymer nanoparticles with strong near-infrared absorption: a novel nanoplatform to design multifunctional nanoprobes for dual-modal photoacoustic and fluorescence imaging

Abstract

Engineering conjugated polymer nanoparticles (CPNs) with an easily-modified surface is essential to construct multifunctional nanoprobes as contrast agents for dual-modal photoacoustic (PA) and fluorescence imaging, which can take advantages of the complementary information from a single modality. In this study, an abundant protein with plenty of functional groups was introduced for the first time to produce easily-modified CPNs, leading to a robust nanoplatform to engineer PA-based multifunctional nanoprobes due to their strong optical absorption in the near-infrared region. Meanwhile, the bovine serum albumin (BSA)-modified CPNs were further engineered by introducing gold clusters in situ, which can serve as fluorescent nanoprobes for dual-modal molecular imaging. In particular, the developed nanoplatform exhibited superior stability and excellent biocompatibility, making it an ideal candidate for various cancer-theranostics applications. More importantly, our imaging results demonstrated that the BSA-modified CPNs were excellent candidates to design PA-based contrast agents for multimodal imaging using the function of the protein. In addition, other functional blocks can also be added to the nanoplatform based on its easily-modified surface, making it a general method for the construction of multifunctional nanoprobes for disease theranostics.

Graphical abstract: Protein-modified conjugated polymer nanoparticles with strong near-infrared absorption: a novel nanoplatform to design multifunctional nanoprobes for dual-modal photoacoustic and fluorescence imaging

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
01 Eost 2018
Accepted
18 Gwen. 2018
First published
26 Gwen. 2018

Nanoscale, 2018,10, 19742-19748

Protein-modified conjugated polymer nanoparticles with strong near-infrared absorption: a novel nanoplatform to design multifunctional nanoprobes for dual-modal photoacoustic and fluorescence imaging

D. Gao, P. Zhang, Y. Liu, Z. Sheng, H. Chen and Z. Yuan, Nanoscale, 2018, 10, 19742 DOI: 10.1039/C8NR06197A

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