Fluorescence-Tagged Gold Nanoparticles for Rapidly Characterizing the Size-Dependent Biodistribution in Tumor Models

• Published in: Advanced healthcare materials Vol. 1; no. 6; pp. 714 - 721
• Main Authors: Chou, Leo Y. T., Chan, Warren C. W.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Weinheim WILEY-VCH Verlag 01-11-2012; WILEY‐VCH Verlag; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Animals; Construction; Design analysis; Design engineering; Diffusion; drug delivery; Fluorescent Dyes; fluorescent gold nanoparticles; Gold; Gold - chemistry; Imaging; In vivo methods and tests; Metal Nanoparticles - chemistry; Metal Nanoparticles - ultrastructure; Mice; Microscopy, Fluorescence - methods; multispectral imaging; nanomedicine; Nanoparticles; Neoplasms, Experimental - chemistry; Neoplasms, Experimental - pathology; Particle Size; pharmacokinetics; Staining and Labeling; Tissue Distribution; Tumors
• ISSN: 2192-2640; 2192-2659
• DOI: 10.1002/adhm.201200084

Nanoparticle vehicles may improve the delivery of contrast agents and therapeutics to diseased tissues, but their rational design is currently impeded by a lack of robust technologies to characterize their in vivo behavior in real‐time. This study demonstrates that fluorescent‐labeled gold nanoparticles can be optimized for in vivo detection, perform pharmacokinetic analysis of nanoparticle designs, analyze tumor extravasation, and clearance kinetics in tumor‐bearing animals. This optical imaging approach is non‐invasive and high‐throughput. Interestingly, these fluorescent gold nanoparticles can be used for multispectral imaging to compare several nanoparticle designs simultaneously within the same animal and eliminates the host‐dependent variabilities across measured data. Together these results describe a novel platform for evaluating the performance of tumor‐targeting nanoparticles, and provide new insights for the design of future nanotherapeutics.
Fluorescence‐tagged gold nanoparticles are engineered for in vivo detection. These particles are used for in vivo pharmacokinetics analysis of nanoparticle designs, and to study the size‐dependent uptake of nanoparticles into tumors. Multispectral imaging of gold nanoparticles in vivo is demonstrated. The study builds a basis for high‐throughput head‐to‐head evaluation of nanoparticle formulations in vivo.