Journal of Nanomedicine & Nanotechnology

Photoswitchable nonfluorescent nanoprobes for tracking individual tumor and bacterial cells

8^th World Medical Nanotechnology Congress & Expo

June 08-09, 2016 Dallas, USA

Walter Harrington, Mwafaq R Haji, Alex Biris, Ekaterina I Galanzha, Dmitry A Nedosekin and Vladimir P Zharov

University of Arkansas at Little Rock, USA

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Nanomed Nanotechnol

Abstract:

The development of photoswitchable fluorescent proteins with controllable lightâ??dark states and spectral shifts in emission in response to light led to breakthroughs in study of cell biology. Nevertheless, conventional photoswitching is not applicable for weakly fluorescent proteins and is limited by low penetration of UV and visible light used into tissue, strong autofluorescent background, and phototoxicity concerns. As an alternative, photoacoustic (PA) imaging has demonstrated a tremendous potential in biomedical study of nonfluorescent cells and proteins. However, little progress has been made in the development of photoswitchable PA contast agents. Here, we introduce a novel concept of photoswitchable PA probes consisting of capsulated thermochromic dyes and absorbing nanoparticles, which can control lightâ??dark states and spectral shifts in absorption in response to laser light. In these hybrid probes, temperature-sensitive dye absorption is photoswitched through laser heating of doped nanoparticles. The proof-ofconcept was demonstrated using near-infrared laser and two thermochromic dyes with magnetic nanoparticles that are reversibly photoswitched either from a colored light state to colourless dark state or from one colour to another. PA imaging provided visualization of these probes in solution and cells. We also propose photoswitching of plasmonic resonances in gold nanoparticle clusters through interparticle distance changes. A potential application of new nonfluorescent photoswitchable multicolour probes are discussed with focus on cellular diagnostics, tracking circulating tumor cells, viruses and bacteria, and magnetic and NIR photothermal therapy of cancer and infections.

Biography :

Walter Harrington is a second year graduate student at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) pursuing a PhD in the Interdisiplinary Biomedical Sciences. His current work focuses on developing novel photoswitchable nanoprobes for labeling and tracking of cells in vivo and use this diagnostic platform for study of biodistribution of bacteria (S. aureus) in the body. He works under the supervision of Vladimir Zharov, PhD, Professor, who is Director of Arkansas Nanomedicine Center at UAMS and who pioneered photothermal nanotherapy and in vivo photoacoustic flow cytometry.

Email: wnharrington@uams.edu