Highly fluorescent and superparamagnetic nanosystem for biomedical applications.

This work reports on highly fluorescent and superparamagnetic bimodal nanoparticles (BNPs) obtained by a simple and efficient method as probes for fluorescence analysis and/or contrast agents for MRI. These promising BNPs with small dimensions (ca. 17 nm) consist of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) covalently bound with CdTe quantum dots (ca. 3 nm). The chemical structure of the magnetic part of BNPs is predominantly magnetite, with minor goethite and maghemite contributions, as shown by Mössbauer spectroscopy, which is compatible with the x-ray diffraction data. Their size evaluation by different techniques showed that the SPION derivatization process, in order to produce the BNPs, does not lead to a large size increase. The BNPs saturation magnetization, when corrected for the organic content of the sample, is ca. 68 emu g-1, which is only slightly reduced relative to the bare nanoparticles. This indicates that the SPION surface functionalization does not change considerably the magnetic properties. The BNP aqueous suspensions presented stability, high fluorescence, high relaxivity ratio (r 2/r 1 equal to 25) and labeled efficiently HeLa cells as can be seen by fluorescence analysis. These BNP properties point to their applications as fluorescent probes as well as negative T 2-weighted MRI contrast agents. Moreover, their potential magnetic response could also be used for fast bioseparation applications.

A fluorescent spectroscopy and modelling analysis of anti-heparanase aptamers-serum protein interactions.

Aptamers are short, single stranded oligonucleotide or peptide molecules that bind a specific target molecule and can be used for the delivery of therapeutic agents and/or for imaging and clinical diagnosis. Several works have been developed aiming at the production of aptamers and the study of their applications, but few results have been reported on plasmatic dynamics of such products. Aptamers against the heparanase enzyme have been previously described. In this work, the interactions of two constructs of the most promising anti-heparanase aptamer (molecular weights about 9200Da and 22000Da) to human and bovine serum albumins were studied by fluorescence quenching technique. Stern-Volmer graphs were plotted and quenching constants were estimated. Stern-Volmer plots obtained from experiments carried out at 25°C and 37°C showed that the quenching of fluorescence of HSA and BSA by the low molecular weight aptamer was a collisional phenomenon (estimated Stern-Volmer constant: 3.22 (±0.01)×10(5)M(-1) for HSA at 37°C and 2.47 (±0.01)×10(5)M(-1) for HSA at 25°C), while the high molecular weight aptamer quenched albumins by static process (estimated Stern-Volmer constant: 4.05 (±0.01)×10(5)M(-1) for HSA at 37°C and 6.20 (±0.01)×10(5)M(-1) for HSA at 25°C), interacting with those proteins constituting complexes. Linear Stern-Volmer plot from HSA titrated with the low MW aptamer suggested the existence of a single binding site for the quencher in this albumin. Differently, for aptamer 2, the slightly downward curvature of the Stern-Volmer plot of the titration for that albumin suggested a possible conformational change that led to the exposition of lower affinity binding sites in HSA at 25°C. Similarly, although short aptamerdoes not appear to form a stable complex (collisional interaction), the longer aptamer is found to form a stable complex with HSA. In addition, the behaviour of quenching curves for HSA and BSA and values estimated for ratio R1/R2 from model developed by Silva et al. suggest that the primary binding site in both aptamers is located closer to the tryptophan residue in sub domain IIA. It is likely that both aptamers are competing for the same primary site in albumin.

Interactions of aptamers with sera albumins.

The interactions of two short aptamers to human and bovine serum albumins were studied by fluorescence spectroscopic techniques. Intrinsic fluorescence of BSA and HSA were measured by selectively exciting their tryptophan residues. Gradual quenching was observed by titration of both proteins with aptamers. Aptamers are oligonucleic acid or peptide molecules that bind a specific target and can be used for both biotechnological and clinical purposes, since they present molecular recognition properties like that commonly found in antibodies. Two aptamers previously selected against the MUC1 tumour marker were used in this study, one selected for the protein core and one for the glycosylated MUC1. Stern-Volmer graphs were plotted and quenching constants were estimated. Plots obtained from experiments carried out at 25 °C and 37 °C showed the quenching of fluorescence of by aptamers to be a collisional phenomenon. Stern-Volmer constants estimated for HSA quenched by aptamer A were 1.68 × 10(5) (± 5 × 10(3))M(-1) at 37 °C, and 1.37 × 10(5) (± 10(3))M(-1) at 25 °C; and quenched by aptamer B were 1.67 × 10(5) (± 5 × 10(3))M(-1) at 37 °C, and 1.32 × 10(5) (± 10(3))M(-1) at 25 °C. Results suggest that the primary binding site for aptamers on albumin is close to tryptophan residues in sub domain IIA.