Hybrid Hierarchical Heterostructures of Nanoceramic Phosphors as Imaging Agents for Multiplexing and Living Cancer Cells Translocation

Abstract

Existing fluorescent labels used in life sciences are based on organic compounds with limited lifetime or on quantum dots which are either expensive or toxic and have low kinetic stability in biological environments. To address these challenges, luminescent nanomaterials have been conceived as hierarchical, core−shell structures with spherical morphology and highly controlled dimensions. These tailor-made nanophosphors incorporate Ln:YVO 4 nanoparticles (Ln = Eu(III) and Er(III)) as 50 nm cores and display intense and narrow emission maxima centered at ∼565 nm. These cores can be encapsulated in silica shells with highly controlled dimensions as well as functionalized with chitosan or PEG5000 to reduce nonspecific interactions with biomolecules in living cells. Confocal fluorescence microscopy in living prostate cancer cells confirmed the potential of these platforms to overcome the disadvantages of commercial fluorophores and their feasibility as labels for multiplexing, biosensing, and imaging in life science assays.

Nano-Theranostics for the Sensing, Imaging and Therapy of Prostate Cancers

“…( Luo et al, 2011 ) and are encapsulated in biocompatible shells that isolate the active luminescent core from the medium, avoiding fluorescence decay effects due to interaction with the molecules of the medium ( Isasi et al, 2018 ). On the other hand, this coating allows subsequent functionalisation to provide, for example, selectivity to the final particle to a particular cell line, such as PC-3 ( Calatayud et al, 2021 ).…”

Biocompatible Probes Based on Rare-Earth Doped Strontium Aluminates with Long-Lasting Phosphorescent Properties for In Vitro Optical IMAGING

“…The microstructural characterization of the as-prepared composites was performed by TEM, Figure 3 b–g. As can be seen, the reverse micelle process allows effective coating of the luminescent nuclei, each core being composed of the agglomeration of several individual nanoparticles, Figure 3 c. The estimated size of the core-shell composites is about 100–200 nm, Figure 3 d, although they also tend to agglomerate, yielding submicron clusters of around 400–500 nm in size, Figure 3 e. On the other hand, the shell, which is amorphous at this stage of the process, displays an average thickness of less than 20 nm, Figure 3 f,g, which in principle could be adequate to enable efficient excitation and emission of light through its framework [ 13 ].…”

“…This is mainly due to the availability of a wide selection of molecules, with adequate properties, to provide a good signal that can be exploited to image a variety of cancers [ 10 ]. Among these techniques, fluorescence imaging reveals some clear-cut advantages, including superior sensitivity, low energy radiation, the capacity to monitor multiple independent optical biomarker reporters simultaneously (multiplexing), and a relatively simple imaging hardware [ 11 , 12 , 13 ]. Fluorescence techniques applied to date employ a number of well-established molecules further functionalized to target cancer specifically and can be also used to track and evaluate the efficiency of the drug release [ 14 , 15 ].…”

“…Compared to current organic dyes, these inorganic cores possess higher photostability upon continuous excitation, always maintaining narrow emission maxima. Moreover, their size similarity to biomolecules ensures their potential for the investigation of biological events [ 13 , 21 ]. In this context, it would be of particular interest if, in addition to fluorescence, the inorganic nanoparticles could also show persistent luminescence, as this would allow for a time-gated imaging approach; for biological samples, the target fluorescent signal often suffers from interference with short-lived background fluorescence (reducing the target-to-background ratio), but this could be effectively eliminated using phosphorescent target signals with live times in the range of microseconds to thousands of seconds [ 22 ].…”

Aminocellulose-Grafted Polymeric Nanoparticles for Selective Targeting of CHEK2-Deficient Colorectal Cancer

“…Colorectal cancer is one of the major causes of cancer-linked mortalities worldwide. , The intrinsic limitations of currently available conventional anticancer chemotherapeutic regimens and rising concerns like enhanced drug toxicity, low aqueous solubility, and poor bioavailability, i.e., lack of delivery to the desired site, motivated the development and applications of nanomedicine-based novel treatment strategies for more efficacious delivery of drugs specifically to the cancer cells but leaving unharmed healthy cells. Better and more personalized approaches are the need of the hour to combat cancer. − Nanoparticles offer a diverse paradigm for cancer therapy and imaging. − After their administration, nanoparticles exhibit selectively higher accumulation in tumor tissues due to leaky vasculature as compared to normal tissue because of EPR effects. , Various plasma proteins get adsorbed onto nanoparticles after intravenous (i.v.) administration in preclinical and clinical models, which are termed protein corona.…”