Highly Fluorescent Magnetic Nanoprobes for Enhanced Cancer Imaging and Therapy

描述(申请人提供)：纳米技术被认为具有从根本上加速癌症预防、诊断和治疗的潜力。由于许多重要的生物学过程，包括导致癌症的事件，都发生在纳米尺度上，因此在纳米尺度上探测分子过程以及与探针和设备的相互作用是很重要的。这项提议的广泛目标是开发新的多功能纳米探针，具有优异的光学和磁性，用于增强分子癌症成像和治疗。这些新的纳米探针不仅将促进癌症的多模式荧光和磁共振成像，而且还将使磁场梯度导向的药物靶向和磁场引导的癌症成像成为可能。这项拟议的研究将专注于困扰美国女性的最常见的癌症-乳腺癌，但纳米探针和开发的技术也可能扩展到其他疾病。其具体目标是：1)开发创新的方法来合成具有最佳磁性和光学性能的荧光磁性纳米探针，与商业和其他已建立的磁性或荧光探针相比。2)对荧光磁性纳米探针进行生物修饰，以特异性靶向人乳腺癌细胞系。3)设计一种电磁装置，产生可控制的磁场梯度，使荧光磁性纳米探针能够局部靶向和循环，用于高效的癌症成像和治疗应用。4)利用小鼠异种移植模型，对HFMN的靶向、成像和治疗效果进行体内评价，证明外加磁场梯度控制可以增强HFMN的靶向效果。实现这些目标将有助于发现高效的分子纳米探针，促进癌症的早期发现和治疗。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Nanotechnology is believed to have the potential to radically accelerate the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer. As many biologically important processes, including events that lead to cancer, happen at the nanometer scale, it is important to probe the molecular processes and interactions with probes and devices at the nanoscale. The broad objective of this proposal is to develop new multifunctional nanoprobes with superior optical and magnetic properties for enhanced molecular cancer imaging and therapy. These new nanoprobes will not only facilitate multimodality fluorescence and magnetic resonance imaging of cancer, but also will enable magnetic field gradient directed drug targeting and magnetic field guided cancer imaging. The proposed research will focus on the most common cancer afflicting American women - breast cancer, but the nanoprobes and the technologies developed may also be extended for other diseases. The specific aims are: 1) Develop innovative approaches to synthesize fluorescent magnetic nanoprobes with both optimal magnetic and optical properties as compared with commercial and other established magnetic or fluorescent probes. 2) Biologically modify the fluorescent magnetic nanoprobes for specific targeting of human breast cancer cell lines. 3) Design an electro-magnetic device which produces a controllable magnetic field gradient that enables localized targeting and circulation of the fluorescent magnetic nanoprobes for highly effective cancer imaging and therapeutic applications. 4) In vivo evaluation of targeting, imaging and therapy efficacy of HFMN using mouse xenograft model, and demonstrate the enhanced targeting efficacy by external magnetic field gradient control. Achieving these aims will contribute to the discovery of highly effective molecular nanoprobes to promote early detection and treatment of cancer.