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Polyelectrolyte microcapsules is one of the most promising means of targeted delivery and controlled release of medicinal substances, contrast agents, and fluorescence labels for diagnostics and treatment of various diseases, including cancer.
Scientists have developed a method of obtaining microparticles with a multi-layered sheath of oppositely charged polyelectrolytes, in which embedded quantum dots – fluorescent nanocrystals, which are characterized by bright luminescence and high photostability. These properties of nanocrystals make them attractive fluorescent labels for imaging intracellular penetration and delivery of the microcapsules.
The possibility of incorporating quantum dots fluorescing in different spectral regions, in theranostics diagnostics and drug delivery on the basis of polyelectrolyte microcapsules also opens up broad prospects to track their transport in the body.
«As shown by the experiments to trace the fate of microcapsules even at the intracellular level through the distribution of capsules and their content in the cellular compartments» – said by a leading international project researcher of the laboratory of nano-bioengineering national research nuclear University MEPhI Galina Nifontova.
According to her, analysis of coded optical properties of the microcapsules shows that they can serve as a basis for developing effective theranostics tools of a new generation. «That is, agents that serve both for diagnostics and targeted drug delivery», she explained.
The researchers determined the optimal content of the quantum dots used for coding procedures that provides optimal fluorescent properties of the encoded microcapsules.
In the course of the study, which was published in the journal Nanoscale Research Letters, demonstrated the uptake of microcapsules by cells and, in particular, murine macrophages. This confirmed the possibility of effective use of the developed system for visualization of living cells and also the transport and delivery of microcapsules in living cells.
The present work was supported by the program of the State task of the Ministry of education of the Russian Federation on the theme «Multifunctional stimulus-sensitive microcapsules and nanocrystals for the early diagnosis and effective treatment of lung cancer and breast cancer».
