Gold-Conjugated Nanobodies for Targeted Imaging Using High-Resolution Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry

• Published in: Nanomaterials (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 11; no. 7; p. 1797
• Main Authors: Agüi-Gonzalez, Paola, Dankovich, Tal M., Rizzoli, Silvio O., Phan, Nhu T. N.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 10.07.2021; MDPI
• Subjects: Antibodies; Antigens; Biological properties; Biological samples; Chemical Sciences; Chemistry; Experiments; Gold; gold nanoparticles; Image resolution; immunolabels; Ion beams; Kemi; Labeling; lipids; Mass spectrometry; Mass spectroscopy; Materials Science; Microscopy; Nanobodies; Nanomaterials; Nanoparticles; NanoSIMS; Organelles; Physics; Proteins; Science & Technology - Other Topics; Scientific imaging; Secondary ion mass spectrometry; Silicon wafers; SIMS; Spectroscopy; Structure-function relationships; synapses; target imaging; vglut1; United States > US; Germany
• ISSN: 2079-4991; 2079-4991
• DOI: 10.3390/nano11071797

Nanoscale imaging with the ability to identify cellular organelles and protein complexes has been a highly challenging subject in the secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) of biological samples. This is because only a few isotopic tags can be used successfully to target specific proteins or organelles. To address this, we generated gold nanoprobes, in which gold nanoparticles are conjugated to nanobodies. The nanoprobes were well suited for specific molecular imaging using NanoSIMS at subcellular resolution. They were demonstrated to be highly selective to different proteins of interest and sufficiently sensitive for SIMS detection. The nanoprobes offer the possibility of correlating the investigation of cellular isotopic turnover to the positions of specific proteins and organelles, thereby enabling an understanding of functional and structural relations that are currently obscure.