Design of Highly Emissive Polymer Dot Bioconjugates for In Vivo Tumor Targeting

摘要

We designed a polymer-blend nanodot system that consists of donor-acceptor polymers for in vivo tumor targeting. The large absorptivity and high fluorescence quantum yield make the PBdots approximately 15 times brighter than the Qdots that emit at 655 nm. To the best of our knowledge, the PBdots represent the brightest nanoprobe at present among various fluorescent nanoparticles of similar size (ca. 15 nm). We covalently conjugated the PBdots to a peptide ligand CTX, and demonstrated their specific targeting to malignant brain tumors by biophotonic imaging, biodistribution, and histological analyses. This study provides a new type of nanoparticle platform that holds promise for clinical cancer diagnostics.