Suchergebnisse

Fluorescent organic nanoparticles (FONs) are emerging as an attractive alternative to the well-established fluorescent inorganic nanoparticles or small organic dyes. Their proper design allows one to obtain biocompatible probes with superior brightness and high photostability, although usually affected by low colloidal stability. Herein, we present a type of FONs with outstanding photophysical and physicochemical properties in-line with the stringent requirements for biomedical applications. These FONs are based on quatsome (QS) nanovesicles containing a pair of fluorescent carbocyanine molecules that give rise to Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET). Structural homogeneity, high brightness, photostability, and high FRET efficiency make these FONs a promising class of optical bioprobes. Loaded QSs have been used for in vitro bioimaging, demonstrating the nanovesicle membrane integrity after cell internalization, and the possibility to monitor the intracellular vesicle fate. Taken together, the proposed QSs loaded with a FRET pair constitute a promising platform for bioimaging and theranostics. ; J.M.F. gratefully thank the financial support received by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 712949 (TECNIOspring PLUS) and from the Agency for Business Competitiveness of the Government of Catalonia (TECSPR17-1-0035). This work was also financially supported by the Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness, Spain, through the "MOTHER" project (MAT2016-80826-R) and the "FLOWERS" project (FUNMAT-FIP-2016) funded by the Severo Ochoa (SEV-2015-0496) awarded to ICMAB. Instituto de Salud Carlos III, through "Acciones CIBER", also supported this work. Characterization of nanovesicles was made at the ICTS "NANBIOSIS", more specifically by the U6 unit of CIBER-BBN. The authors acknowledge the European Commission (EC) FP7-PEOPLE-2013-Initial Training Networks (ITN) "NANO2FUN" project no. 607721 for being the spark that initiated this work. K.B.D. acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation (CBET-1517273 and CHE-1726345). C.S. and A.P. benefited from the equipment and framework of the COMP-HUB Initiative, funded by the "Departments of Excellence" program of the Italian Ministry for Education, University and Research (MIUR, 2018-2022). ; Peer reviewed

A new kind of fluorescent organic nanoparticles (FONs) is obtained using quatsomes (QSs), a family of nanovesicles proposed as scaffolds for the nanostructuration of commercial lipophilic carbocyanines (1,1′‐dioctadecyl‐3,3,3′,3′‐tetramethyl‐indocarbocyanine perchlorate (DiI), 1,1′‐dioctadecyl‐3,3,3′,3′‐tetramethyl‐indodicarbocyanine perchlorate (DiD), and 1,1′‐dioctadecyl‐3,3,3′,3′‐tetramethyl‐indotricarbocyanine iodide (DiR)) in aqueous media. The obtained FONs, prepared by a CO2‐based technology, show excellent colloidal‐ and photostability, outperforming other nanoformulations of the dyes, and improve the optical properties of the fluorophores in water. Molecular dynamics simulations provide an atomistic picture of the disposition of the dyes within the membrane. The potential of QSs for biological imaging is demonstrated by performing superresolution microscopy of the DiI‐loaded vesicles in vitro and in cells. Therefore, fluorescent QSs constitute an appealing nanomaterial for bioimaging applications. ; This work was financially supported by MINECO/FEDER, Spain (Grant Nos. CTQ2013‐40480‐R, SAF2016‐7524‐R, and MAT 2016‐80826‐R), by AGAUR, Generalitat de Catalunya (Grant No. 2014‐SGR‐17), and through the CERCA program, the Networking Research Center on Bioengineering, Biomaterials, and Nanomedicine (CIBER‐BBN) and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, through the "Severo Ochoa" Programme for Centres of Excellence in R&D (SEV‐2015‐0496, Grant FLOWERS, and SEV‐2014‐0425). L.A. thanks the financial support of AXA Research Fund and D.H. and E.V.S. the Army Research Laboratory (Grant No. W911NF‐15‐2‐0090). The research leading to these results received funding from the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union's Seventh Framework ProgrammeFP7/2007–2013 under REA grant Agreement No. 607721 (Nano2Fun) A.A. and S.I.‐T. are enrolled in the Materials Science Ph.D. program of UAB. A.A. and S.I.‐T. gratefully acknowledge help of Dr. M. Masino in photostability measurements. ; Peer reviewed