Transferring biomarker into molecular probe: melanin nanoparticle as a naturally active platform for multimodality imaging. Journal of the American Chemical Society Fan, Q., Cheng, K., Hu, X., Ma, X., Zhang, R., Yang, M., Lu, X., Xing, L., Huang, W., Gambhir, S. S., Cheng, Z. 2014; 136 (43): 15185-15194

Abstract

Developing multifunctional and easily prepared nanoplatforms with integrated different modalities is highly challenging for molecular imaging. Here, we report the successful transferring an important molecular target, melanin, into a novel mul-timodality imaging nanoplatform. Melanin is abundantly expressed in melanotic melanomas and thus has been actively studied as a target for melanoma imaging. In our work, the multifunctional biopolymer nanoplatform based on ultrasmall (< 10 nm) water-soluble melanin nanoparticle (MNP) was developed and showed unique photoacoustic property and natural binding ability with metal ions (for example, 64Cu2+, Fe3+). Therefore MNP can serve not only as a photoacoustic contrast agent, but also as a nanoplatform for positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Traditional passive nanoplatforms require complicated and time-consuming processes for pre-building reporting moieties or chemical modifications using active groups to integrate different contrast properties into one entity. In comparison, utilizing functional biomarker melanin can greatly simplify the building process. We further conjugated avß3 integrins targeting peptide, cyclic c(RGDfC) peptide, to MNPs and this allowed targeting of these nanoparticles to allow for greater U87MG tumor accumulation than that simply possible due to the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect. The multimodal properties of MNPs demonstrate the high potential of endogenous materials with multifunctions as nanoplatforms for molecular theranostics and clinical translation.

View details for DOI 10.1021/ja505412p

View details for PubMedID 25292385