Mesoporous persistent nanophosphors for in vivo optical bioimaging and drug-delivery

• Published in: Nanoscale Vol. 6; no. 22; pp. 13970 - 13976
• Main Authors: Maldiney, Thomas, Ballet, Benoit, Bessodes, Michel, Scherman, Daniel, Richard, Cyrille
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Royal Society of Chemistry 21.11.2014
• Subjects: Animals; Biocompatibility; Bioengineering; Biomedical materials; Calcium Compounds - chemistry; Calcium Compounds - pharmacokinetics; Chromium - chemistry; Chromium - pharmacokinetics; Coated Materials, Biocompatible - chemical synthesis; Coated Materials, Biocompatible - chemistry; Coated Materials, Biocompatible - pharmacokinetics; Diagnostic software; Doxorubicin - administration & dosage; Doxorubicin - pharmacokinetics; Drug Carriers - chemical synthesis; Drug Carriers - chemistry; Drug Delivery Systems - instrumentation; Drug Delivery Systems - methods; Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor; Engineering Sciences; Gallic Acid - chemistry; Gallic Acid - pharmacokinetics; Humans; Imaging; In vivo testing; In vivo tests; Life Sciences; Luminescent Measurements - instrumentation; Luminescent Measurements - methods; Materials; Mice; Nanospheres - chemistry; Nanostructure; Optical Imaging - instrumentation; Optical Imaging - methods; Silicates - chemistry; Silicates - pharmacokinetics; Surgical implants; Tissue Distribution; Tumor Cells, Cultured; Zinc Compounds - chemical synthesis; Zinc Compounds - chemistry; Zinc Compounds - pharmacokinetics; ZERO CHARGE; CORE; SHELL; UP-CONVERSION LUMINESCENT; SILICA NANOPARTICLES; NANOCOMPOSITE; POINTS
• ISSN: 2040-3364; 2040-3372
• DOI: 10.1039/c4nr03843f

Based upon the ambitious idea that one single particle could serve multiple purposes at the same time, the combination and simultaneous use of imaging and therapeutics has lately arisen as one of the most promising prospects among nanotechnologies directed toward biomedical applications. Intended for both therapeutics and diagnostics in vivo, highly complex nanostructures were specifically designed to simultaneously act as optical imaging probes and delivery vehicles. Yet, such multifunctional photonic nanoplatforms usually exploit fluorescence phenomena which require constant excitation light through biological tissues and thus significantly reduce the detection sensitivity due to the autofluorescence from living animals. In order to overcome this critical issue, the present article introduces a novel multifunctional agent based on persistent luminescence mesoporous nanoparticles. Being composed of a hybrid chromium-doped zinc gallate core/mesoporous silica shell architecture, we show that this nanotechnology can be used as an efficient doxorubicin-delivery vehicle presenting a higher cytotoxicity toward U87MG cells than its unloaded counterpart in vitro. In addition, we demonstrate that a persistent luminescence signal from these doxorubicin-loaded mesoporous nanophosphors opens a new way to highly sensitive detection in vivo, giving access to the real-time biodistribution of the carrier without any autofluorescence from the animal tissues. This new persistent luminescence-based hybrid nanotechnology can be easily applied to the delivery of any therapeutic agent, thus constituting a versatile and sensitive optical nanotool dedicated to both therapeutic and diagnostic applications in vivo.