Multifunctional theranostic nanoparticles represent an emerging agent with the potential to offer extremely sensitive diagnosis and targeted cancer therapy. Herein, we report the synthesis and characterization of a multifunctional theranostic agent (referred to as LA-LAPNHs) for targeted magnetic resonance imaging/computed X-ray tomography (MRI/CT) dual-mode imaging and photothermal therapy of hepatocellular carcinoma. The LA-LAPNHs were characterized as having a core-shell structure with the gold nanoparticles (AuNPs)@polydopamine (PDA) as the inner core, the indocyanine green (ICG), which is electrostatically absorbed onto the surface of PDA, as the photothermal therapeutic agent, and the lipids modified with gadolinium-1,4,7,10-tetraacetic acid and lactobionic acid (LA), which is self-assembled on the outer surface as the shell. The LA-LAPNHs could be selectively internalized into the hepatocellular cell line (HepG2 cells) but not into HeLa cells due to the specific recognition ability of LA to asialoglycoprotein receptor. Additionally, the dual-mode imaging ability of the LA-LAPNH aqueous solution was confirmed by enhanced MR and CT imaging showing a shorter T1 relaxation time and a higher Hounsfield unit value, respectively. In addition, the LA-LAPNHs showed significant photothermal cytotoxicity against liver cancer cells with near-infrared irradiation due to their strong absorbance in the region between 700 and 850 nm. In summary, this study demonstrates that LA-LAPNHs may be a promising candidate for targeted MR/CT dual-mode imaging and photothermal therapy of hepatocellular carcinoma.
A point-of-care
apparatus for hepatitis virus detection requires
simple and easy-to-use processing steps and should have the same diagnostic
capability as that in the central laboratory. However, no automated
and efficient methods for hepatitis B virus (HBV) sample-to-answer
detection include serum separation, and complete prestorage of reagents
has been developed. We developed an automated sample-to-answer disc
for rapid HBV detection from whole blood based on a double rotation
axes centrifugal microfluidic platform. The disc with complete prestorage
of reagents features fully automated and integrated serum separation
from whole blood, magnetic bead-based DNA extraction, aliquoting of
the nucleic acid, and real-time polymerase chain reaction. A laser
diode for sequential release of prestored liquid reagents was used.
Processing merely requires manual loading of the sample into the disc.
We demonstrate successful sample-to-answer detection of HBV in a 500
μL whole blood sample with sample concentrations down to 102 copies/mL. The total time of the whole detection from sample-to-result
is about 48 min. The disc provides a user-friendly molecular diagnostic
system for rapid analysis of HBV without demanding a complicated laboratory
instrument and major manual operation time. Overall, the results indicated
that the developed disc could be used for HBV molecular diagnosis.
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