Abstract
The limited specificity of nanoparticle (NP) uptake by target cells associated with a disease is one of the principal challenges of nanomedicine. Using the threshold mechanism of plasmonic nanobubble (PNB) generation and enhanced accumulation and clustering of gold nanoparticles in target cells, we increased the specificity of PNB generation and detection in target versus non-target cells by more than one order of magnitude compared to the specificity of NP uptake by the same cells. This improved cellular specificity of PNBs was demonstrated in six different cell models representing diverse molecular targets such as epidermal growth factor receptor, CD3 receptor, prostate specific membrane antigen and mucin molecule MUC1. Thus PNBs may be a universal method and nano-agent that overcome the problem of non-specific uptake of NPs by non-target cells and improve the specificity of NP-based diagnostics, therapeutics and theranostics at the cell level.
Highlights
Nanomedicine promises unique abilities to support diagnostic, therapeutic and theranostic functions at nanoscale, providing molecule- and cell-level resolution, specificity and selectivity
Mechanism of cellular specificity of plasmonic nanobubble (PNB) As can be seen from Figure 4, the PNB method can better discriminate between target and non-target cells compared to NPs
Cellular specificity of PNBs was more than one order of magnitude higher than that of NPs
Summary
Nanomedicine promises unique abilities to support diagnostic, therapeutic and theranostic functions at nanoscale, providing molecule- and cell-level resolution, specificity and selectivity. These functions are usually mediated through nanoparticles (NPs) that have to be delivered to specific molecular and cellular targets associated with a certain pathology or diagnosis. This strategic advantage of nanomedicine is compromised by the principal limitation in NP targeting. Gold NPs were applied in combination with other NPs such as drug carriers and diagnostic labels [31,32,33,34,35,36,37]
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