Tumor recognition of peanut agglutinin-immobilized fluorescent nanospheres in biopsied human tissues

Abstract

We are investigating an imaging agent for early detection of colorectal cancer. The agent, named the nanobeacon, is coumarin 6-encapsulated polystyrene nanospheres whose surfaces are covered with poly(N-vinylacetamide) and peanut agglutinin that reduces non-specific interactions with the normal mucosa and exhibits high affinity for terminal sugars of the Thomsen-Friedenreich antigen, which is expressed cancer-specifically on the mucosa, respectively. We expect that cancer can be diagnosed by detecting illumination of intracolonically administered nanobeacon on the mucosal surface. In the present study, biopsied human tissues were used to evaluate the potential use of the nanobeacon in the clinic. Prior to the clinical study, diagnostic capabilities of the nanobeacon for detection of colorectal cancer were validated using 20 production batches whose characteristics were fine-tuned chemically for the purpose. Ex vivo imaging studies on 66 normal and 69 cancer tissues removed from the colons of normal and orthotopic mouse models of human colorectal *

PNA-Modified Liposomes Improve the Delivery Efficacy of CAPIRI for the Synergistic Treatment of Colorectal Cancer

“…Peanut agglutinin (PNA) is a homotetrameric plant agglutinin extracted from peanuts that can bind to a variety of disaccharides containing β-D-galactosyl-(1–3)-N-acetyl-D-galactosamine [Gal-β(1–3)GalNAc]. Studies have found that the core component of the TF structure is Gal-β(1–3)GalNAc, which is the core structure of MUC1 ( Beack et al, 2017 ; Kumagai et al, 2019 ). Therefore, PNA-modified liposomes can actively target MUC1-positive colorectal cancers to deliver drugs centrally.…”