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School of Chemical Biology and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100069, PR China
Department of Neurosurgery, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100050, PR China
Department of Anatomy, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100069, PR China
d
Department of Neurosurgery, Beijing Sanbo Brain Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100093, PR China
b
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h i g h l i g h t s
g r a p h i c a l a b s t r a c t
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history:
Received 16 December 2015
Revised 30 January 2016
Accepted 2 February 2016
Available online 2 February 2016
Keywords:
FA-c(RGDyK) dual-target
Iron oxide nanoparticles
MR/NIR imaging
Brain gliomas
a b s t r a c t
A major limit of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) as a magnetic resonance (MR)
imaging nanoprobe in clinical applications is that the SPIONs are unable to reach sufficient concentrations at the tumor site by passive targeting to produce an obvious contrast effect for tumor imaging.
Single-targeting SPIONs systems have been applied to improve the contrast effect. However, they still
suffer from a lack of efficiency and specificity of the SPIONs to tumors. Herein, we developed folic acid
(FA) and cyclic Arg-Gly-Asp-D-Tyr-Lys (c(RGDyK)) dual-targeting nanoprobes based on Cy5.5 labeled
Fe3O4 nanoparticles (NPs). The synergistic targeting ability of the dual-targeting Fe3O4 NPs and the effect
of the dual-target density on targeting specificity were investigated in brain glioma-bearing mice. In vivo
T2-weighted MR imaging of brain glioma-bearing mice and ex vivo near-infrared imaging of brains
harboring gliomas suggested that the combination of dual-target increased the uptake of NPs by glioma,
consequently, enhanced the contrast effect. Moreover, it was revealed that the density of dual-target
plays an important role in targeting specificity.
2016 Published by Elsevier Inc.
1. Introduction
Corresponding authors.
1
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcis.2016.02.004
0021-9797/ 2016 Published by Elsevier Inc.
J. Zhang et al. / Journal of Colloid and Interface Science 469 (2016) 8692
87
2. Experimental
2.5. Characterization
2.1. Materials
Iron(III)
acetylacetonate
(Fe(acac)3),
benzyl
ether,
1,2-hexadecanediol, and oleylamine were purchased from
SigmaAldrich (USA). Oleic acid (OA, >90%) was obtained from Alfa
Aesar (Johnson Matthey, UK). N-(Trimethoxysilylpropyl) ethylene
diamine triacetic acid, trisodium salt (TETT, 45% in water) was
provided by Gelest Inc (USA). Bi-functional polyethylene glycol
(H2N-PEG3500-COOH), folic acid conjugated poly(ethylene glycol)
(FA-PEG3500-NH2) and c(RGDyK) were received from JenKem
Technology Co. Ltd. (Beijing, China). Other chemicals were of
analytical grade and used as received.
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J. Zhang et al. / Journal of Colloid and Interface Science 469 (2016) 8692
intensities within the tumor and a normal brain region respectively and rn is the standard deviation of noise measured from
the background noise in the same slice. The DCNR was calculated
from |CNRpost CNRpre|/CNRpre [34].
The ex vivo images of the brains harboring gliomas were captured on an optical imaging system (NightOWL II LB983, Germany)
with a 630 nm excitation filter and a 680 nm emission band-pass
filter set. Afterwards, the brains were fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde, dehydrated with 30% sucrose solution, sliced in 20 lm
thickness, stained with DAPI (100 ng/ml), and imaged on a LEICA
TCSSP5 confocal microscope.
2.10. Prussian blue staining
Fixed brain slices were stained with a 1:1 mixture of 2% potassium ferrocyanide (II) trihydrate solution and 2% HCl for 15 min,
washed in distilled water, counterstained with nuclear fast red
for 10 min, and examined under an optical microscope.
Scheme 1. Schematic illustration of the non-targeting, single-targeting, high density dual-targeting, and low density dual-targeting nanoprobes.
J. Zhang et al. / Journal of Colloid and Interface Science 469 (2016) 8692
89
Fig. 1. TEM images of Fe3O4-OA (A), Fe3O4-TETT (B), Fe3O4-PEG (C), Fe3O4-PEG-RGD (D), Fe3O4-PEG-RGD-FAl (E) and Fe3O4-PEG-RGD-FAh (F). Scale bar = 50 nm. The insets are
the photographs of corresponding NPs dispersed in hexane (A) or distilled water (BF).
Fig. 2. XRD patterns of Fe3O4-OA and Fe3O4-TETT NPs (A), the fielddependent magnetization curve (MH curve) (B), the inset displays the temperature-dependence of ZFC
and FC magnetization at a magnetic field of 100 Oe, and UVvis absorbance (C) and fluorescence emission (D) spectra of various NPs.
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J. Zhang et al. / Journal of Colloid and Interface Science 469 (2016) 8692
Fig. 3. The linear plotting of relaxation rate R2 versus Fe concentration (A) and
corresponding MR T2 mappings (B).
J. Zhang et al. / Journal of Colloid and Interface Science 469 (2016) 8692
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Fig. 5. (A) Ex vivo fluorescence images of the excised brain harboring gliomas after injection of (a) Fe3O4-PEG, (b) Fe3O4-PEG-RGD, (c) Fe3O4-PEG-RGD-FAl, and (d) Fe3O4-PEGRGD-FAh nanoprobes at an equivalent dosage. (B) Prussian blue staining of mouse brain sections harboring gliomas upon injection of (a) Fe3O4-PEG, (b) Fe3O4-PEG-RGD, (c)
Fe3O4-PEG-RGD-FAl, and (d) Fe3O4-PEG-RGD-FAh nanoprobes. Scale bar = 100 lm. (C) CLSM images of the brain slices bearing C6 glioma after i.v. administration of different
nanoprobes. Blue: cell nuclei, Red: Cy5.5 labeled NPs. White arrow points to the glioma region. Scale bar = 250 lm. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure
legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
gated by CLSM. As shown in Fig. 5C, only weak red fluorescence originating from Cy5.5 was observed around the glioma treated with
non-targeting nanoprobes. Although single-targeting (Fe3O4-PEGRGD) nanoprobes resulted in slightly higher fluorescence intensity,
the much stronger fluorescence signals were observed from brain
slices treated with either Fe3O4-PEG-RGD-FAl or Fe3O4-PEG-RGDFAh, which further proves the enhanced uptake of dual-targeting
nanoprobes by glioma due to an improved targeting specificity.
Moreover, it was noted that a higher dual-target density induced a
greater accumulation of nanoprobes in the glioma region (Fig. S2).
4. Conclusions
In sum, the dual-targeting iron oxide nanoprobes with low and
high FA-c(RGDyK) dual-target density were prepared and characterized. The in vivo MR imaging of brain glioma-bearing mice
demonstrated that both dual-targeting nanoprobes exhibited an
improved targeting specificity toward glioma due to the synergistic
targeting ability. This consequently led to an enhanced MR negative contrast. More importantly, it was disclosed that the density
of dual-target plays an important role in targeting specificity. On
the one hand, the targeting specificity elevates with the increasing
of dual-target density. On the other hand, an increased dual-target
density might cause a steric hindrance that impedes the uptake of
nanoprobes by glioma. Therefore, optimization the density of dualtarget is needed to further improve the targeting specificity of
dual-targeting nanoprobes toward gliomas.
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial supports from
National Natural Science Foundation of China (81271639),
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