Fabrication of Versatile Cyclodextrin-Functionalized
Upconversion Luminescence Nanoplatform for Biomedical Imaging
- Publication date
- Publisher
Abstract
Lanthanide-based
upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) are a new type
of luminescent tags that show great application potential in biomedical
fields. However, a major challenge when applying UCNPs in biomedical
research is the lack of a versatile strategy to make water-dispersible
and biocompatible UCNPs with high simplicity in functionalization.
To address this problem, in the present work, we employed 6-phosphate-6-deoxy-β-cyclodextrin
(βPCD) as the novel ligand to fabricate a versatile upconversion
luminescent nanoplatform. Using βPCD as the surface ligand not
only enhances the stability and biocompatibility of the UCNPs under
physiological conditions but also enables simple conjugation with
various functional molecules, such as organic dyes and biomolecules,
via the host–guest interaction between those molecules and
the cyclodextrin cavity. The conjugated upconversion nanoprobe then
displays excellent capability in labeling the cancer cells and tumor
tissue slices for luminescent imaging. These results demonstrate that
the versatile cyclodextrin-functionalized upconversion nanoplatform
appears particularly flexible for further modifications, indicating
great potential for applications in biosensing and bioimaging