Localising functionalised gold-nanoparticles in murine spinal cords by X-ray fluorescence imaging and background-reduction through spatial filtering for human-sized objects.
Florian GrünerFlorian BlumendorfOliver SchmutzlerTheresa StauferMichelle S BradburyUlrich WiesnerTanja RosentreterGabriele LoersDavid LutzBernadette RichterMarkus FischerFlorian SchulzSwantje SteinerMartin WarmerAnja BurkhardtAlke MeentsMatthew KupinskiChristoph HoeschenPublished in: Scientific reports (2018)
Accurate in vivo localisation of minimal amounts of functionalised gold-nanoparticles, enabling e.g. early-tumour diagnostics and pharmacokinetic tracking studies, requires a precision imaging system offering very high sensitivity, temporal and spatial resolution, large depth penetration, and arbitrarily long serial measurements. X-ray fluorescence imaging could offer such capabilities; however, its utilisation for human-sized scales is hampered by a high intrinsic background level. Here we measure and model this anisotropic background and present a spatial filtering scheme for background reduction enabling the localisation of nanoparticle-amounts as reported from small-animal tumour models. As a basic application study towards precision pharmacokinetics, we demonstrate specific localisation to sites of disease by adapting gold-nanoparticles with small targeting ligands in murine spinal cord injury models, at record sensitivity levels using sub-mm resolution. Both studies contribute to the future use of molecularly-targeted gold-nanoparticles as next-generation clinical diagnostic and pharmacokinetic tools.
Keyphrases
- gold nanoparticles
- fluorescence imaging
- photodynamic therapy
- high resolution
- endothelial cells
- spinal cord injury
- reduced graphene oxide
- spinal cord
- induced pluripotent stem cells
- pluripotent stem cells
- cancer therapy
- single molecule
- case control
- dual energy
- magnetic resonance imaging
- magnetic resonance
- mass spectrometry
- drug delivery