BODIPY-conjugated chitosan nanoparticles as a fluorescent probe

Abstract

Recently, development of fluorescent nanoparticle-based probes for various bioimaging applications has attracted great attention. This work aims to develop a new type fluorescent nanoparticle conjugate and evaluate its cytotoxic effects on A549 and BEAS 2B cell lines. Throughout the study, ionically crosslinked chitosan nanoparticles (CNs) were conjugated with carboxylated 4,4-difluoro-4-bora-3a,4a-diaza-s-indacene (BODIPY-COOH). The results of conjugates (BODIPY-CNs) were investigated with regard to their physic-chemical, optical, cytotoxic properties and cellular internalization. The morphology of BODIPY-CNs was found to be spherical in shape and quite uniform having average diameter of 70.25 ± 11.99 nm. Cytotoxicty studies indicated that although BODIPY-COOH itself was quite toxic on both A549-and BEAS 2B-treated cells, CNs increased the cell viability of both cell lines via conjugation to BODIPY-COOH fluorescent molecule up to 67% for A549 and 74% for BEAS 2B cells. These results may suggest a possible utilization of the new fluorescent nanoparticle-based probe for bioimaging in biology and medicine.

The Potential of Chitosan in Nanomedicine: An Overview of the Cytotoxicity of Chitosan Based Nanoparticles

“…Chitosan nanoparticles are of great interest as oral drug carriers for proteins, as they are capable of preventing enzymatic degradation in the gastrointestinal system and facilitating mucoadhesion to the intestinal mucus layer ( Janes et al, 2001 ; Amidi et al, 2010 ). Several articles in this review investigated the use of chitosan nanoparticles in ocular-targeted drug delivery, drug delivery over the blood-brain barrier, targeted delivery of bio-imaging markers and vaccination by oral- and intranasal administration ( de Campos et al, 2004 ; Amidi et al, 2006 ; Borges et al, 2006 ; Diebold et al, 2007 ; Sayin et al, 2008 ; Saremi et al, 2011 ; Cheng et al, 2012 ; Patel et al, 2012 ; Chen et al, 2013a ; Dehghan et al, 2013 ; Ye et al, 2013 ; Zhao et al, 2014 ; Liu et al, 2015 ; da Silva et al, 2016 ; Shah et al, 2016 ; Bor et al, 2017 ; Jin et al, 2017 ; Pandit et al, 2017 ; Shi et al, 2017 ; Zhao et al, 2017 ; Çelik Tekeli et al, 2018 ; Cole et al, 2018 ; Tandberg et al, 2018 ; Bento et al, 2019 ; Sinani et al, 2019 ; Tzeyung et al, 2019 ). A considerable amount of research on chitosan nanoparticles in cancer medicine has also been conducted, in order to decrease the side effects by encapsulating chemotherapeutics in chitosan nanoparticles, and to enhance the oral bioavailability of anti-cancer drugs ( Akhlaghi et al, 2010 ; Guo et al, 2013 ; Battogtokh and Ko, 2014 ; Jain et al, 2015 ; Khan et al, 2019 ).…”

Biomacromolecules as carriers in drug delivery and tissue engineering

“…Ionically crosslinked chitosan nanoparticles could also conjugate fluorescent probes for imaging. Bor et al 137 developed BODIPY-conjugated chitosan nanoparticles with a diameter of 70.25 ± 11.99 nm in spherical shape. The BODIPY-conjugated chitosan nanoparticles show significantly reduced cytotoxicity to human lung adenocarcinoma (A549) cells and normal human bronchial epithelial (BEAS 2B) cells.…”

Supramolecular Confinement within Chitosan Nanocomposites Enhances Singlet Oxygen Generation

“…Even though chitosan nanomaterials covalently functionalized with BODIPY are known, our approach of preparing supramolecular nanocomposites is unique. Our methodology helps to avoid covalent functionalization with heavy atoms like iodine and also overcomes the commonly encountered insolubility of uncharged BODIPYs in aqueous medium.…”