Coating lanthanide nanoparticles with carbohydrate ligands elicits affinity for HeLa and RAW264.7 cells, enhancing their photodamaging effect.

Lanthanide nanoparticles (LNPs) conjugated with monosaccharides were synthesized as a photon energy-upconverting nanodevice with affinity to cancer cells. The conjugates were designed to selectively damage the cancer cells containing protoporphyrin IX, a photosensitizer endogenously synthesized from priorly administrated 5-aminolevlunic acid (ALA), by a highly tissue-penetrative near-infrared (NIR) irradiation. First of all, the affinities of monosaccharides toward cells (HeLa, RAW264.7, and MKN45) were assessed by a novel cell aggregation assay with trivalent monosaccharide-citric acid conjugates. As a result, HeLa exhibited high affinity for glucose, while RAW264.7 for glucose, galactose, mannose, and fucose. A similar cell-monosaccharide affinity was microscopically observed when the cells were mixed with monosaccharide-LNP conjugates and rinsed, in which the high affinity LNP probes luminesced on the cells. The high affinity monosaccharide-LNPs showed greater photodamaging effects than the unmodified LNP toward the corresponding cells, when the cells were pretreated with ALA and irradiated by NIR. This study demonstrates that carbohydrates can be used as selective ligands for cancer cells in a photodynamic therapy with LNP.

The Effect of Coatings on the Affinity of Lanthanide Nanoparticles to MKN45 and HeLa Cancer Cells and Improvement in Photodynamic Therapy Efficiency.

An improvement in photodynamic therapy (PDT) efficiency against a human gastric cancer cell line (MKN45) with 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) and lanthanide nanoparticles (LNPs) is described. An endogenous photosensitizer, protoporphyrin IX, biosynthesized from ALA and selectively accumulated in cancer cells, is sensitizable by the visible lights emitted from up-conversion LNPs, which can be excited by a near-infrared light. Ten kinds of surface modifications were performed on LNPs, NaYF4(Sc/Yb/Er) and NaYF4(Yb/Tm), in an aim to distribute these irradiation light sources near cancer cells. Among these LNPs, only the amino-functionalized LNPs showed affinity to MKN45 and HeLa cancer cells. A PDT assay with MKN45 demonstrated that amino-modified NaYF4(Sc/Yb/Er) gave rise to a dramatically enhanced PDT effect, reaching almost perfect lethality, whereas NaYF4(Yb/Tm)-based systems caused little improvement in PDT efficiency. The improvement of PDT effect with the amino-modified NaYF4(Sc/Yb/Er) is promising for a practical PDT against deep cancer cells that are reachable only by near-infrared lights.

The newly identified human nuclear protein NXP-2 possesses three distinct domains, the nuclear matrix-binding, RNA-binding, and coiled-coil domains.

Using a monoclonal antibody that recognizes a nuclear matrix protein, we selected a cDNA clone from a lambdagt11 human placenta cDNA library. This cDNA encoded a 939-amino acid protein designated nuclear matrix protein NXP-2. Northern blot analysis indicated that NXP-2 was expressed in various tissues at different levels. Forcibly expressed green fluorescent protein-tagged NXP-2 as well as endogenous NXP-2 was localized in the nucleus and distributed to the nuclear matrix. NXP-2 was released from the nuclear matrix when RNase A was included in the buffer for nuclear matrix preparation. Mapping of functional domains was carried out using green fluorescent protein-tagged truncated mutants of NXP-2. The region of amino acids 326-353 was responsible for nuclear matrix binding and contained a cluster of hydrophobic amino acids that was similar to the nuclear matrix targeting signal of acute myeloleukemia protein. The central region (amino acids 500-591) was demonstrated to be required for RNA binding by Northwestern analysis, although NXP-2 lacked a known RNA binding motif. The region of amino acid residues 682-876 was predicted to have a coiled-coil structure. The RNA-binding, nuclear matrix-binding, and coiled-coil domains are structurally separated, suggesting that NXP-2 plays important roles in diverse nuclear functions, including RNA metabolism and maintenance of nuclear architecture.