Theranostics 2016; 6(9):1467-1476. doi:10.7150/thno.16003 This issue Cite
Research Paper
1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
2. Molecular Imaging Laboratory, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
3. Department of Bioengineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
4. Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-Based Functional Materials & Devices, Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, Jiangsu, China.
Unnatural sugar-mediated metabolic labeling of cancer cells, coupled with efficient Click chemistry, has shown great potential for in vivo imaging and cancer targeting. Thus far, chemical labeling of cancer cells has been limited to the small-sized azido groups, with the large-sized and highly hydrophobic dibenzocyclooctyne (DBCO) being correspondingly used as the targeting ligand. However, surface modification of nanomedicines with DBCO groups often suffers from low ligand density, difficult functionalization, and impaired physiochemical properties. Here we report the development of DBCO-bearing unnatural sugars that could directly label LS174T colon cancer cells with DBCO groups and subsequently mediate cancer-targeted delivery of azido-modified silica nanoconjugates with easy functionalization and high azido density in vitro and in vivo. This study, for the first time, demonstrates the feasibility of metabolic labeling of cancer cells with large-sized DBCO groups for subsequent, efficient targeting of azido-modified nanomedicines.
Keywords: Click chemistry, cancer targeting, nanomedicine, silica nanoconjugate, multi-modal imaging.