Theranostics 2015; 5(9):970-984. doi:10.7150/thno.11632 This issue Cite
Research Paper
1. Rui Jin Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200025, P. R. China
2. Institute of Nano Biomedicine and Engineering, Key Laboratory for Thin Film and Microfabrication of Ministry of Education, Department of Instrument Science and Engineering, Research Institute of Translational Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, P. R. China
3. Center for molecular imaging and Translational medicine of Xiamen University, Xiamen 361102, P. R. China
4. Suzhou Kowloon Hospital Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine.
Developing safe and effective nanoprobes for targeted imaging and selective therapy of gastric cancer stem cells (GCSCs) has become one of the most promising anticancer strategies. Herein, gold nanostars-based PEGylated multifunctional nanoprobes were prepared with conjugated CD44v6 monoclonal antibodies (CD44v6-GNS) as the targeting ligands. It was observed that the prepared nanoprobes had high affinity towards GCSC spheroid colonies and destroyed them completely with a low power density upon near-infrared (NIR) laser treatment (790 nm, 1.5 W/cm2, 5 min) in vitro experiment. Orthotopic and subcutaneous xenografted nude mice models of human gastric cancer were established. Subsequently, biodistribution and photothermal therapeutic effects after being intravenously injected with the prepared nanoprobes were assessed. Photoacoustic imaging revealed that CD44v6-GNS nanoprobes could target the gastric cancer vascular system actively at 4 h post-injection, while the probes inhibited tumor growth remarkably upon NIR laser irradiation, and even extended survivability of the gastric cancer-bearing mice. The CD44v6-GNS nanoprobes exhibited great potential for applications of gastric cancer targeted imaging and photothermal therapy in the near future.
Keywords: gold nanostars, CD44v6 monoclonal antibody, gastric cancer stem cells (GCSCs), photoacoustic imaging, photothermal therapy