Multifunctional Biocompatible Graphene Oxide Quantum Dots Decorated Magnetic Nanoplatform for Efficient Capture and Two-Photon Imaging of Rare Tumor Cells

Abstract

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are extremely rare cells in blood containing billions of other cells. The selective capture and identification of rare cells with sufficient sensitivity is a real challenge. Driven by this need, this manuscript reports the development of a multifunctional biocompatible graphene oxide quantum dots (GOQDs) coated, high-luminescence magnetic nanoplatform for the selective separation and diagnosis of Glypican-3 (GPC3)-expressed Hep G2 liver cancer tumor CTCs from infected blood. Experimental data show that an anti-GPC3-antibody-attached multifunctional nanoplatform can be used for selective Hep G2 hepatocellular carcinoma tumor cell separation from infected blood containing 10 tumor cells/mL of blood in a 15 mL sample. Reported data indicate that, because of an extremely high two-photon absorption cross section (40530 GM), an anti-GPC3-antibody-attached GOQDs-coated magnetic nanoplatform can be used as a two-photon luminescence platform for selective and very bright imaging of a Hep G2 tumor cell in a biological transparency window using 960 nm light. Experimental results with nontargeted GPC3(−) and SK-BR-3 breast cancer cells show that multifunctional-nanoplatform-based cell separation, followed by two-photon imaging, is highly selective for Hep G2 hepatocellular carcinoma tumor cells.

Multimodal Nonlinear Optical Imaging of Live Cells Using Plasmon-Coupled DNA-Mediated Gold Nanoprism Assembly

“…NLO imaging using second harmonic generation (SHG) and two-photon luminescence (TPL) are the emerging techniques to watch the biological world due its ability to penetrate deep into living tissue 11–20 . In last one decade, due to the huge advances in the innovative developments of laser systems, detector devices and optical filter design, we are now able to use the combination of several NLO modalities for advancing biological imaging into a single microscope platform, which is known as multimodal NLO imaging 21–30 . For in vivo imaging using noninvasive technology, near infrared (NIR) light between 650–950 nm (biological I window) and 1000–1350 nm (biological II window) needs to be used for providing maximum radiation penetration through tissue 1–5,11–13,31–33 .…”

Rapid and facile synthesis of graphene oxide quantum dots with good linear and nonlinear optical properties

“…Compared to GQDs, GOQDs show better photoluminescence property because of the reduction in intrinsic emission and increase in defect state emission [28]. Furthermore, because of the carbonyl and carboxyl groups located at the edge of the sheets, GOQDs is easily dissolved in a hydrophilic or hydrophobic media, as well as in the organic polymer which can significantly improve its functionality [29,30]. Up to now various methods have been used for the preparation of GOQDS.…”

Quantum dots in nanomedicine: recent trends, advances and unresolved issues

“…Using a calvarial bone window system, the authors showed that the QD conjugates efficiently diffused into the bone marrow and labelled single cells of rare populations of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells [85]. Shi et al have designed the multifunctional graphene oxide QDsdecorated magnetic nanoplatform enabling the challenging task of capturing rare Glypican-3-expressing Hep G2 circulating liver cancer tumour cells in tumour cell-enriched blood preparations containing as few as 10 cancer cells in 15 mL [86]. Their two-photon luminescence platform was suitable for subsequent selective cancer cells imaging in a biological transparency window using the 960 nm wavelength light.…”