Sizing Nanomatter in Biological Fluids by Fluorescence Single Particle Tracking

• Published in: Nano letters Vol. 10; no. 11; pp. 4435 - 4442
• Main Authors: Braeckmans, Kevin, Buyens, Kevin, Bouquet, Wim, Vervaet, Chris, Joye, Philippe, Vos, Filip De, Plawinski, Laurent, Doeuvre, Loïc, Angles-Cano, Eduardo, Sanders, Niek N, Demeester, Jo, Smedt, Stefaan C. De
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Chemical Society 10.11.2010
• Subjects: Biological and medical sciences; Biotechnology; Blood Chemical Analysis - methods; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Exact sciences and technology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General aspects, investigation technics, apparatus; Humans; Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted - methods; Materials science; Methods. Procedures. Technologies; Microscopy, Fluorescence - methods; Nanocrystalline materials; Nanoscale materials and structures: fabrication and characterization; Nanostructures - analysis; Nanostructures - ultrastructure; Others; Particle Size; Physics; Tissues, organs and organisms biophysics; Various methods and equipments; Nanobiophotonics; nanoparticles; drug delivery; medical diagnostics; nanomedicines; Aggregation; Nanoparticles; In vivo; Tracking; Functionalization; Fluorescence; Drug carrier; Real time; Nanostructured materials; Medical application; Biomedical imaging
• ISSN: 1530-6984; 1530-6992
• DOI: 10.1021/nl103264u

Accurate sizing of nanoparticles in biological media is important for drug delivery and biomedical imaging applications since size directly influences the nanoparticle processing and nanotoxicity in vivo. Using fluorescence single particle tracking we have succeeded for the first time in following the aggregation of drug delivery nanoparticles in real time in undiluted whole blood. We demonstrate that, by using a suitable surface functionalization, nanoparticle aggregation in the blood circulation is prevented to a large extent.