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Dye-biomolecule conjugates and NIR-fluorescent particles for targeting of disease-related biomarkers
(2011)
Indispensable for fluorescence imaging are highly specific and sensitive molecular probes that absorb and emit in the near infrared (NIR) spectral region and respond to or target molecular species or processes. Here, we present approaches to targeted fluorescent probes for in vivo imaging in the intensity and lifetime domain exploiting NIR dyes. Screening schemes for the fast identification of suitable fluorophores are derived and design criteria for highly emissive optical probes. In addition, as a signal amplification strategy that enables also the use of hydrophobic NIR fluorophores as fluorescent reporters, first steps towards versatile strategies for the preparation of NIR-fluorescent polymeric particles are presented that can be utilized also for the design of targeted and analyte-responsive probes.
Current optical probes including engineered nanoparticles (NPs) are constructed from near infrared (NIR)-emissive organic dyes with narrow absorption and emission bands and small Stokes shifts prone to aggregation-induced self-quenching. Here, we present the new asymmetric cyanine Itrybe with broad, almost environment-insensitive absorption and emission bands in the diagnostic window, offering a unique flexibility of the choice of excitation and detection wavelengths compared to common NIR dyes. This strongly emissive dye was spectroscopically studied in different solvents and encapsulated into differently sized (15, 25, 100 nm) amino-modified polystyrene NPs (PSNPs) via a one-step staining procedure. As proof-of-concept for its potential for pre-/clinical imaging applications, Itrybe-loaded NPs were surface-functionalized with polyethylene glycol (PEG) and the tumor-targeting antibody Herceptin and their binding specificity to the tumor-specific biomarker HER2 was systematically assessed. Itrybe-loaded NPs display strong fluorescence signals in vitro and in vivo and Herceptin-conjugated NPs bind specifically to HER2 as demonstrated in immunoassays as well as on tumor cells and sections from mouse tumor xenografts in vitro. This demonstrates that our design strategy exploiting broad band-absorbing and -emitting dyes yields versatile and bright NIR probes with a high potential for e.g. the sensitive detection and characterization of tumor development and progression.
High sensitizer and activator concentrations have been increasingly examined to improve the performance of multi-color emissive upconversion (UC) nanocrystals (UCNC) like NaYF4:Yb,Er and first strategies were reported to reduce concentration quenching in highly doped UCNC. UC luminescence (UCL) is, however, controlled not only by dopant concentration, yet by an interplay of different parameters including size, crystal and shell quality, and excitation power density (P). Thus, identifying optimum dopant concentrations requires systematic studies of UCNC designed to minimize additional quenching pathways and quantitative spectroscopy. Here, we quantify the dopant concentration dependence of the UCL quantum yield (ΦUC) of solid
NaYF4:Yb,Er/NaYF4:Lu upconversion core/shell nanocrystals of varying Yb3+ and Er3+ concentrations (Yb3+ series: 20%‒98% Yb3+; 2% Er3+; Er3+ series: 60% Yb3+; 2%‒40% Er3+). To circumvent other luminescence quenching processes, an elaborate synthesis yielding OH-free UCNC with record ΦUC of ~9% and ~25 nm core particles with a thick surface shell were used. High Yb3+ concentrations barely reduce ΦUC from ~9% (20% Yb3+) to ~7% (98% Yb3+) for an Er3+ concentration of 2%, thereby allowing to strongly increase the particle absorption cross section and UCNC brightness. Although an increased Er3+ concentration reduces ΦUC from ~7% (2% Er3+) to 1% (40%) for 60% Yb3+. Nevertheless, at very high P (> 1 MW/cm2) used for microscopic studies, highly Er3+-doped UCNC display a high brightness because of reduced saturation. These findings underline the importance of synthesis control and will pave the road to many fundamental studies of UC materials.
The overall interest in nanotoxicity, triggered by the increasing use of nanomaterials in the material and life sciences, and the synthesis of an ever increasing number of new functional nanoparticles calls not only for standardized test procedures1,2 and for efficient approaches to screen the potential genotoxicity of these materials, but also for standardized and validated methods for surface analysis.
4,5 The analysis and quantification of surface chemistry is hence in the focus of an increasing number of standardization organizations and interlaboratory comparisons with different analytical methods are being done.5 For the monitoring of nanomaterial synthesis and the fast assessment of the number of functional groups such as carboxyl and amino functionalities, which are very commonly used functionalities in the life sciences, simple and validated methods are needed that can be performed with common laboratory instrumentation. 5,6 Here we provide a brief overview of the ongoing research in division Biophotonics employing quantitative NMR (qNMR), conductometry, and colorimetric and fluorometric optical assays for the determination of the total and the accessible number of carboxyl and amino groups on differently sized polymer and silica nano- and microparticles.5-7
Current trends in materials and life sciences are flanked by the need to push detection limits to single molecules or single cells, enable the characterization of increasingly complex matrices or sophisticated nanostructures, speed up the time of analysis, reduce instrument complexity and costs, and improve the reliability of data. This requires suitable analytical tools such as spectroscopic, separation and imaging techniques, mass spectrometry, and hyphenated techniques as well as sensors and their adaptation to application-specific challenges in the environmental, food, consumer product, health sector, nanotechnology, and bioanalysis. Increasing concerns about health threatening known or emerging pollutants in drinking water, consumer products, and food and about the safety of nanomaterials led to a new awareness of the importance of analytical sciences. Another important driver in this direction is the increasing demand by legislation, particularly in view of the 17 sustainable development goals by the United Nations addressing clean energy, industry, and innovation, sustainable cities, clean water, and responsible consumption and production. In this respect, also the development of analytical methods that enable the characterization of material flows in production processes and support recycling concepts of precious raw materials becomes more and more relevant. In the future, this will provide the basis for greener production in the chemical industry utilizing recycled or sustainable starting materials.
This makes analytical chemistry an essential player in terms of the circular economy helping to increase the sustainability of production processes. In the life sciences sector, products based on proteins, such as therapeutic and diagnostic antibodies, increase in importance. These increasingly biotechnologically produced functional biomolecules pose a high level of complexity of matrix and structural features that can be met only by highly advanced methods for separation, characterization, and detection. In addition, metrological traceability and target definition are still significant challenges for the future, particularly in the life sciences.
However, innovative reference materials as required for the health and food sector and the characterization of advanced materials can only be developed when suitable analytical protocols are available. The so-called reproducibility crisis in sciences underlines the importance of improved measures of quality control for all kinds of measurements and material characterization. This calls for thorough method validation concepts, suitable reference materials, and regular interlaboratory comparisons of measurements as well as better training of scientists in analytical sciences.
The important contribution of analytical sciences to these developments is highlighted by a broad collection of research papers, trend articles, and critical reviews from these different application fields. Special emphasis is dedicated to often-overlooked quality assurance and reference materials.
Biofilms are ubiquitous in nature and in the man-made environment. Given their harmful effects on human health, an in-depth understanding of biofilms and the monitoring of their formation and growth are important. Particularly relevant for many metabolic processes and survival strategies of biofilms is their extracellular pH. However, most conventional techniques are not suited for minimally invasive pH measurements of living biofilms. Here, a fluorescent nanosensor is presented for ratiometric measurements of pH in biofilms in the range of pH 4.5–9.5 using confocal laser scanning microscopy. The nanosensor consists of biocompatible polystyrene nanoparticles loaded with pH-inert dye Nile Red and is surface functionalized with a pH-responsive fluorescein dye. Its performance was validated by fluorometrically monitoring the time-dependent changes in pH in E. coli biofilms after glucose inoculation at 37 °C and 4 °C. This revealed a temperature-dependent decrease in pH over a 4-h period caused by the acidifying glucose metabolism of E. coli. These studies demonstrate the applicability of this nanosensor to characterize the chemical microenvironment in biofilms with fluorescence methods.
The surface chemistry / functionalization of nanomaterials and microparticles largely controls the stability of these materials as well as their solubility and subsequent biofunctionalization and their interactions with biological systems. Moreover, in the case of some nanomaterials like semiconductor quantum dots or lanthanide-based upconversion nanocrystals, the ligand shell strongly affects their optical properties, e.g., via passivation of surface states and traps that favor luminescence quenching or the protection of surface atoms from quenching water molecules. This renders analytical methods for the quantification of surface groups like functionalities very important. Targets of broad interest are here amino, carboxyl, alkine and maleimide groups used for common bioconjugation reactions and typical ligands like thiols and polyethylene glycol (PEG) molecules of varying length, used for the tuning of material hydrophilicity and biocompatibility, minimization of unspecific interactions, prevention of biofouling, and enhancement of blood circulation times as well as surface-bound biomolecules like streptavidin or other biomolecules relevant e.g., for diagnostic assays. Here, we focus on simple optical methods relying on standard laboratory instrumentation, validated by method comparison and/or mass balances and present examples for their use for the characterization of different types of nanomaterials and microparticles.
Luminescence-based detection methods, ranging from fluorescence spectroscopy for photophysical and mechanistic studies over sensing applications, chromatographic separation techniques and the microarray technology with fluorescence detection to fluorescence microscopy, flow cytometry, single molecule spectroscopy, and molecular imaging to integrating sphere spectroscopy, are among the most widely used methods in the life and material sciences. This is due to e.g., their unique sensitivity enabling the detection of single molecules, potential for multiplexing, ease of combination with spatial resolution, and suitability for remote sensing. Many of these advantages are closely linked to the choice of suitable molecular and nanoscale fluorescent reporters, typically required for signal generation. This includes organic dyes without and with sensor function, fluorophore-encoded polymeric and silica nanoparticles as well as nanocrystalline systems like semiconductor quantum dots and upconversion phosphors, emitting in the visible (vis), near-infrared (NIR), and IR (infrared). Current challenges present the environment sensitivity of most fluorophores, rendering fluorescence spectra, measured intensities/fluorescence quantum yields, and fluorescence decay kinetics matrix-dependent, and instrument-specific distortions of measured fluorescence signals that need to be considered for quantification and comparability of data, particularly fluorescence spectra.
Here, current applications of luminescence-based methods and different types of reporters will be presented. In this context, suitable spectroscopic tools for the characteri-zation of the optical properties of fluorescent reporters and fluorophore-encoded microparticles, analytical tools for the determination of the surface chemistry of different types of particles, and different multiplexing strategies will be discussed.
At the core of photoluminescence techniques are suitable fluorescent labels and reporters, the spectroscopic properties of which control the limit of detection, the dynamic range, and the potential for multiplexing. Many applications including recent developments in intracellular labeling rely on well established molecular chromophores such as small organic dyes or fluorescent proteins. However, one of the most exciting – but also controversial – advances in reporter technology, the emerging development and application of luminescent nanoparticles with unique optical properties, yet complicated surface chemistry paves new roads for fluorescence imaging and sensing as well as for in vitro and in vivo labeling. Here, we compare and evaluate the differences in physico-chemical properties of common fluorophores, focusing on traditional organic dyes and luminescent nanocrystals with size-dependent features. The ultimate goal is to provide a better understanding of the advantages and limitations of both classes of chromophores, facilitate fluorophore choice for users of fluorescence techniques, and address future challenges in the rational design and manipulation of nanoparticulate labels and probes.