In Vivo Tumor-Targeted Fluorescence Imaging Using Near-Infrared Non-Cadmium Quantum Dots
by Gao, J. H.; Chen, K.; Xie, R. G.; Xie, J.; Yan, Y. J.; Cheng, Z.; Peng, X. G.; Chen, X. Y.
This article reported the high tumor targeting efficacy of RGD peptide labeled near-infrared (NIR) non-cadmium quantum dots (QDs). After using poly(ethylene glycol) to encapsulate InAs/InP/ZnSe QDs (emission maximum at about 800 nm), QD800-PEG dispersed well in PBS buffer with the hydrodynamic diameter (HD) of 15.9 nm and the circulation half-life of similar to 29 min. After coupling QD800-PEG with arginine glycine aspartic acid (RGD) or arginine-alanine-aspartic acid (RAD) peptides, we used nude mice bearing subcutaneous U87MG tumor as models to test tumor-targeted fluorescence imaging. The results indicated that the tumor uptake of QD800-RGD is much higher than those of QD800-PEG and QD800-RAD. The semiquantitative analysis of the region of interest (ROI) showed a high tumor uptake of 10.7 +/- 1.5% ID/g in mice injected with QD800-RGD, while the tumor uptakes of QD800-PEG and QD800-RAD were 2.9 +/- 0.3% ID/g and 4.0 0.5%ID/g, respectively, indicating the specific tumor targeting of QD800-RGD. The high reproducibility of bioconjunction between QDs and the RGD peptide and the feasibility of QD-RGD bioconjugates as tumor-targeted fluorescence probes warrant the successful application of QDs for in vivo molecular imaging.
- Journal
- Bioconjugate Chemistry
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 4
- Year
- 2010
- Start Page
- 604-609
- URL
- https://dx.doi.org/10.1021/bc900323v
- ISBN/ISSN
- 1520-4812; 1043-1802
- DOI
- 10.1021/bc900323v