What is it about?

Luminescent biolabels are being eagerly investigated as a means of detecting cancer cells by bioimaging. Upconversion nanoparticles are a promising option to be used as biolabels for cancer cell detection. This process uses a near infrared beam (NIR k 5 980 nm) as the excitation source to upconvert the energy into light in the visible region. The present study, used Y2O3:Yb31, Er31 (1%, 10% mol) and Gd2O3:Yb31, Er31 (1%, 10% mol) capable of emitting red photons of k 5 660 nm. The nanoparticles were previously functionalized with aminosilanes and folic acid (UCNP-NH2-FA). Folic acid binds to the folate receptor on the surface of MCF-7 breast cancer cells, and this binding promotes internalization of the UCNPs via endocytosis. The UCNPs were characterized by TEM, EDS, and Fourier transform infrared. Cytotoxicity was also analyzed using the MTT (methy-134 thiazolyltetrazolium) colorimetric assay. The UCNPs-NH2-FA was noncytotoxic to the studied cancer cells and they were clearly localizable within the cell cytoplasm via confocal microscope.

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Why is it important?

The functionalized upconvversion nanoparticles were noncytotoxic and were clearly localized within the cell cytoplasm via confocal microscope. The herein observed internalization of functionalized nanoparticles within cancerous cells is a novelty and constitutes an advance in the possibilities of cancer detection. However, further in vivo studies are needed to verify nanoparticle internalization in cancer cells of living organisms.

Perspectives

I hope this article an be useful to the investigators working on the biomedical area

Dalia Chavez
Centro de Ensenanza Tecnica y Superior

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This page is a summary of: Upconversion rare earth nanoparticles functionalized with folic acid for bioimaging of MCF-7 breast cancer cells, Journal of Materials Research, December 2017, Cambridge University Press,
DOI: 10.1557/jmr.2017.463.
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