Development of an Inorganic-Organic Nano-Assembly Bioimaging Platform

发展用于诊断和治疗疾病的纳米生物技术解决当前与健康相关的挑战是我们社会的极大兴趣。更好地理解纳米生物相互作用对于设计创新和更有效的解决方案至关重要，这些解决方案用于药物输送或成像等应用。Mirexus生物技术公司（MBI）开发了植物衍生的碳水化合物纳米颗粒（phytoglyco原，PhG，来源于甜玉米），即所谓的NanoDendrix（TM）。这些应用于免疫调节，药物输送和抗感染。这些纳米粒子的表面化学性质使得它们易于修饰，赋予有机纳米粒子额外的功能，例如由于有机染料而发光。然而，纳米odendrix （TM）与无机纳米颗粒的结合还有待探索。特别令人感兴趣的是镧系纳米粒子（mn - nps），由于其基于使用近红外光的杰出光学特性，能够穿透更深的生物组织，并且比通常需要的UV-vis光产生更少的散射、光毒性和光漂白。因此，本项目将开发基于NanoDentrix（TM）的无机-有机纳米组件，其表面将装饰10纳米以下尺寸的镧系纳米颗粒。这赋予了NanoDentrix（TM）近红外光学特性，将用于更深入地了解它们的纳米生物相互作用和最终的生物分布。为了实现这一目标，我们将使用创新的高光谱成像技术，提供特定环境（例如生物细胞）的光学信息。反过来，所获得的知识将用于设计和开发更有效的纳米探针，用于生物医学应用，使加拿大社会受益。

The development of nanobiotechnology for diagnosis and treatment of diseases addressing current health-related challenges is of great interest for our society. A better understanding of nano-bio-interactions is of paramount importance to design innovative and more efficient solutions for applications such as drug delivery or imaging. Mirexus Biotechnologies Inc (MBI) has developed plant-derived carbohydrate nanoparticles (Phytoglycogen, PhG, derived from sweet corn), so-called NanoDendrix(TM). These are applied in immunomodulation, drug delivery and as anti-infectives. The surface chemistry of these nanoparticles allows for their easy modification to endow the organic nanoparticles with additional functionalities, for instance luminescence due to organic dyes. However, the combination of NanoDendrix(TM) with inorganic nanoparticles has yet to be explored. Of particular interest are lanthanide-based nanoparticles (Ln-NPs), due to their outstanding optical properties based on the use of near-infrared light that is able to penetrate deeper into biological tissues and induces less scattering, phototoxicity, and photobleaching than commonly required UV-vis light. Therefore, this project will develop inorganic-organic nano-assemblies based on NanoDentrix(TM), whose surface will be decorated with sub-10nm sized lanthanide-based nanoparticles. This endows the NanoDentrix(TM) with near-infrared-based optical properties that will be used in order to gain deeper insight into their nano-bio-interaction and ultimately biodistribution. In order to achieve this, we will use the innovative technique of hyperspectral imaging providing environment-specific (e.g. biological cells) optical information. In turn, the knowledge gained will be leveraged for the design and development of more efficient nanoprobes for biomedical applications benefiting Canadian Society.