Abstract

Precise diagnosis is a challenge for guiding surgical resection of brain tumors. Conventional imaging contrast agents suffer from short circulation lifetime, poor blood–brain barrier (BBB) permeability and low targeting specificity which limit the tumor imaging efficiency of contrast agent. In our study, we demonstrate the in vivo imaging of glioblastoma using nanodiamonds (NDs) with tumor targeting property. NDs are coated with PEGylated denatured bovine serum albumin (dcBSA-PEG-NDs) to maintain a high colloidal stability in physiological conditions. Colloidal stability is an important criterion of determining the penetration ability of nanoparticles, as discrete dcBSA-PEG-NDs traverse the in vitro BBB model more effectively than aggregated NDs. With the addition of tumor vasculature targeting tripeptides RGD, the diamond nanoparticles can selectively target the brain tumor in U-87 MG mice xenograft compared with the non-targeting NDs. Overall, this discrete ND system enables efficacious brain tumor imaging with minimal toxicity to other major organs, and it holds the potential as a theragnostic platform for brain related diseases.

Reference:
1. Leung, H. M., Lau, C. H., Ho, J. W. T., Chan, M. S., Chang, T. J. H., Law, L. H., Wang, F., Tam, D. Y., Liu, L. S., Chan, K. W. Y., Tin, C. & Lo, P. K. Nanoscale, 2021,13(5), 3184-3193.