A Comparative Study between Antibody and Peptide Conjugated Gold Nanoparticles for In Vivo Targeting of EGFR in Pancreatic Cancer Bearing Mice Models [abstract]

Nanoscience Poster SessionPancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer related deaths in the United States due to its severe aggressiveness and lethal malignancy. Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) is over expressed in more than 95% of human pancreatic cancer patients. A number of peptides and monoclonal antibodies have been developed to target the EGFR in pancreatic cancer. Our research has focused on developing EGFR targeting biomolecule conjugated gold nanoparticles for the diagnosis and staging of various cancers. In this study, we synthesized a series of Antibody EGFR and EGFR-peptide conjugated AuNPs. We investigated the in vivo EGFR targeting characteristics of these conjugates in pancreatic tumor bearing SCID mice models. Our investigation establishes that the peptide conjugated AuNPs have high in vivo mobility and targets pancreatic tumor effectively. We have also established that EGFR-peptide -AuNP conjugates act as better X-ray contrast agents for early detection of pancreatic cancer in mice models. The details of this comparative study will be presented in this poster

Relative study between anti-EGFR and GE-11 peptide conjugated gold nanoparticles for in vivo targeting in pancreatic cancer [abstract]

Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer related deaths in the United States due to its severe aggressiveness and lethal malignancy. Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) is over expressed in more than 95% of human pancreatic cancer patients. A number of peptides and monoclonal antibodies have been developed to target the EGFR in pancreatic cancer. Our research has focused on developing EGFR targeting biomolecule conjugated gold nanoparticles for the diagnosis and staging of various cancers. In this study, we have synthesized a series of Antibody EGFR and EGFR-peptide (GE-11) conjugated AuNPs. We investigated the in vivo EGFR targeting characteristics of these conjugates in pancreatic tumor bearing SCID mice models. Our investigation has provided evidence that the peptide conjugated AuNPs have high in vivo mobility and targets pancreatic tumor effectively. We have also established that the EGFR-peptide-AuNP conjugates serve as better X-ray contrast agents for early detection of pancreatic cancer in mice models. The details of this comparative study will be presented in this poster

Photoacoustic Detection of Circulating Prostate, Breast and Pancreatic Cancer cells using targeted Gold Nanoparticles: Implications of Green Nanotechnology in Molecular Imaging

Nanoscience Poster SessionCirculating tumor cells are hallmarks of metastasis cancer. The presence of circulating tumor cells in blood stream correlates with the severity of disease. Photoacoustic imaging (PA) of tumor cells is an attractive technique for potential applications in diagnostic imaging of circulating tumor cells. However, the sensitivity of photoacoustic imaging of tumor cells depends on their photon absorption characteristics. In this context, gold nanoparticle embedded tumor cells offer significant advantages for diagnostic PA of single cells. As the PA absorptivity is directly proportional to the number of nanoparticles embedded within tumor cells, the propensity of nanoparticles to internalize within tumor cells will dictate the sensitivity for single cell detection. We are developing biocompatible gold nanoparticles to use them as probes as part of our ongoing effort toward the application of X ray CT Imaging, Ultra Sound (US) and photoacoustic imaging of circulating breast, pancreatic and prostate tumor cells. We, herein report our latest results which have shown that epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG)-conjugated gold nanoparticles (EGCG-AuNPs) internalize selectively within cancer cells providing threshold concentrations required for photo acoustic signals. In this presentation, we will describe, our recent results on the synthesis and characterization of EGCG gold nanoparticles, their cellular internalization and photo acoustic imaging of PC-3 prostate cancer cells and PANC-1 pancreatic cancer cells