Intelligent Hierarchical Targeting Near-Infrared Persistent Luminescence Nanosystem for Improved Nuclear Delivery and Simultaneous Visualization/Therapy of EBV-Associated Cancer.

Epstein-Barr nuclear antigen 1 (EBNA1), a sequence-specific DNA binding protein of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), is essential for viral genome replication and maintenance and is therefore an attractive target for the therapeutic intervention of EBV-associated cancers. Several EBNA1-specific inhibitors have demonstrated the ability to block EBNA1 function in vitro, but practical delivery strategies for these inhibitors in vivo are still lacking. Here, we report an intelligent hierarchical targeting theranostic nanosystem (denoted as mZGOCS@MnO-P5) that integrates an azide (N3) terminal dual-targeting peptide (N3-P5), a tumor microenvironment-responsive degradable MnO nanosheet, and a mesoporous ZnGaO:Cr, Sn near-infrared persistent luminescence (NIR-PL) nanosphere (mZGOCS).

Co-encapsulation of fisetin and cisplatin into liposomes: Stability considerations and in vivo efficacy on lung cancer animal model.

Lung cancer is a highly vascularized tumor for which a combination between an antitumor agent, cisplatin, and an antiangiogenic molecule, fisetin, appears a promising therapeutic approach. In order to deliver both chemotherapies within the tumor, to enhance fisetin solubility and decrease cisplatin toxicity, an encapsulation of both drugs into liposomes was developed. Purification and freeze-drying protocols were optimized to improve both the encapsulation and liposome storage.

H O -Induced Persistent Luminescence Signal Enhancement Applied to Biosensing.

Persistent luminescence nanoparticles (PLNPs) are innovative materials able to emit light for a long time after the end of their excitation. Thanks to this property, their detection can be separated in time from the excitation, making it possible to obtain images with a high signal-to-noise ratio. This optical property can be of particular interest for the development of in vitro biosensors.

Effect of the Elaboration Method on Structural and Optical Properties of ZnGaSnO:0.5%Cr Persistent Luminescent Nanomaterials.

Near-infrared (NIR) persistent luminescence (PersL) materials have demonstrated promising developments for applications in many advanced fields due to their unique optical properties. Both high-temperature solid-state (SS) or hydrothermal (HT) methods can successfully be used to prepare PersL materials. In this work, ZnGaSnO:0.

New Lidocaine-Based Pharmaceutical Cocrystals: Preparation, Characterization, and Influence of the Racemic vs. Enantiopure Coformer on the Physico-Chemical Properties.

This study describes the preparation, characterization, and influence of the enantiopure vs. racemic coformer on the physico-chemical properties of a pharmaceutical cocrystal. For that purpose, two new 1:1 cocrystals, namely lidocaine:dl-menthol and lidocaine:d-menthol, were prepared.

ZGSO Spinel Nanoparticles with Dual Emission of NIR Persistent Luminescence for Anti-Counterfeiting Applications.

The property of persistent luminescence shows great potential for anti-counterfeiting technology and imaging by taking advantage of a background-free signal. Current anti-counterfeiting technologies face the challenge of low security and the inconvenience of being limited to visible light emission, as emitters in the NIR optical windows are required for such applications. Here, we report the preparation of a series of ZnGaSnO nanoparticles (ZGSO NPs) with persistent luminescence in the first and second near-infrared window to overcome these challenges.

Fate and biological impact of persistent luminescence nanoparticles after injection in mice: a one-year follow-up.

Persistent luminescence nanoparticles (PLNPs) are attracting growing interest for non-invasive optical imaging of tissues with a high signal to noise ratio. PLNPs can emit a persistent luminescence signal through the tissue transparency window for several minutes, after UV light excitation before systemic administration or directly through visible irradiation, allowing us to get rid of the autofluorescence signal of tissues. PLNPs constitute a promising alternative to the commercially available optical near infrared probes thanks to their versatile functionalization capabilities for improvement of the circulation time in the blood stream.

Persistent X-ray-activated phosphors: mechanisms and applications.

Trivalent lanthanides in wide bandgap fluoride or phosphate hosts can present persistent luminescence between 200 nm and 1.7 µm after charging by X-rays. Mechanisms are reviewed and applications envisioned.

Functionalized Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotube-Based Aptasensors for Diclofenac Detection.

Driven by the increasing concern about the risk of diclofenac (DCF) residues as water pollutants in the aqueous environment and the growing need for its trace determination, a simple but sensitive electrochemical aptasensor for the trace detection of DCF was developed. To construct the aptasensor, the amine-terminated DCF aptamer was covalently immobilized on the surface of the carboxylic acid-functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotube (f-MWCNT)-modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) through EDC/NHS chemistry. The f-MWCNTs provide a reliable matrix for aptamer immobilization with high grafting density, while the aptamer serves as a biorecognition probe for DCF.

Persistent luminescence nanoparticles functionalized by polymers bearing phosphonic acid anchors: synthesis, characterization, and behaviour.

Optical imaging has become a widely used technique and is still under development for clinical diagnostics and treatment applications. For further development of the field, researchers have put much effort into the development of inorganic nanoparticles (NPs) as imaging probes. In this trend, our laboratory developed ZnGaOCr (ZGO) nanoparticles, which can emit a bright persistent luminescence signal through the tissue transparency window for dozens of minutes and can be activated with visible irradiation.

Coating Persistent Luminescence Nanoparticles With Hydrophilic Polymers for Imaging.

Persistent luminescence nanoparticles (PLNPs) are innovative nanomaterials highly useful for bioimaging applications. Indeed, due to their particular optical properties, i.e.

Degradation of ZnGaO:Cr luminescent nanoparticles in lysosomal-like medium.

The ultimate goal of in vivo imaging is to provide safe tools to probe the inside of a body in order to obtain pathological information, monitor activities, and examine disease progression or regression. In this context zinc gallate doped with chromium III (ZGO) nanoparticles with persistent luminescence properties have been previously developed, and their biodistribution as well as in vitro toxicity were evaluated. However, to date, nothing is known about their potential transformations in biological media, which may hinder their biomedical applications.

Mucoadhesive thermosensitive hydrogel for the intra-tumoral delivery of immunomodulatory agents, in vivo evidence of adhesion by means of non-invasive imaging techniques.

Intratumoral injection of biocompatible gels is increasingly used for the sustained delivery of drugs and vaccines to enhance the anti-cancer immune response. Granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) has become an attractive adjuvant thanks to its ability to boost the antitumor immune response by inducing proliferation, maturation and migration of the dendritic-cells (DCs) and the differentiation of lymphocytes. Killed Mycobacteria, such as Heat-killed Mycobacterium tuberculosis (HKMT) have been used in several studies as TLR-2 agonist to increase maturation of DCs.

Imaging and therapeutic applications of persistent luminescence nanomaterials.

The development of probes for biomolecular imaging and diagnostics is a very active research area. Among the different imaging modalities, optics emerged since it is a noninvasive and cheap imaging technique allowing real time imaging. In vitro, this technique is very useful however in vivo, fluorescence suffers from low signal-to-noise ratio due to tissue autofluorescence under constant excitation.

Novel Perfluorinated Triblock Amphiphilic Copolymers for Lipid-Shelled Microbubble Stabilization.

Amphiphilic triblock (Atri) copolymers made of perfluorinated alkyl chain linked to hydrocarbon chain and methoxy-poly(ethylene glycol) of three different molecular weights were synthesized. In vitro evaluation demonstrated that these new compounds were noncytotoxic. Characterization and interaction of each triblock copolymer with a branched polyamine myristoyl lipid (2-{3[bis-(3-amino-propyl)-amino]-propylamino}- N-ditetradecyl carbamoyl methyl-acetamide, DMAPAP) were studied by the Langmuir film method and thermal analysis.

Nanohybrids with Magnetic and Persistent Luminescence Properties for Cell Labeling, Tracking, In Vivo Real-Time Imaging, and Magnetic Vectorization.

Once injected into a living organism, cells diffuse or migrate around the initial injection point and become impossible to be visualized and tracked in vivo. The present work concerns the development of a new technique for therapeutic cell labeling and subsequent in vivo visualization and magnetic retention. It is hypothesized and subsequently demonstrated that nanohybrids made of persistent luminescence nanoparticles and ultrasmall superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles incorporated into a silica matrix can be used as an effective nanoplatform to label therapeutic cells in a nontoxic way in order to dynamically track them in real-time in vitro and in living mice.

Gadolinium and Platinum in Tandem: Real-time Multi-Modal Monitoring of Drug Delivery by MRI and Fluorescence Imaging.

A novel dual-imaging cisplatin-carrying molecular cargo capable of performing simultaneous optical and MR imaging is reported herein. This long-lasting MRI contrast agent (r relaxivity of 23.4 mMs at 3T, 25 C) is a photo-activated cisplatin prodrug () which enables real-time monitoring of anti-cancer efficacy.

Electrokinetic Hummel-Dreyer characterization of nanoparticle-plasma protein corona: The non-specific interactions between PEG-modified persistent luminescence nanoparticles and albumin.

Nanoparticles (NPs) play an increasingly important role in the development of new biosensors, contrast agents for biomedical imaging and targeted therapy vectors thanks to their unique properties as well as their good detection sensitivity. However, a current challenge in developing such NPs is to ensure their biocompatibility, biodistribution, bioreactivity and in vivo stability. In the biomedical field, the adsorption of plasmatic proteins on the surface of NPs impacts on their circulation time in blood, degradation, biodistribution, accessibility, the efficiency of possible targeting agents on their surface, and their cellular uptake.

Photo-stimulation of persistent luminescence nanoparticles enhances cancer cells death.

Persistent luminescence nanoparticles made of ZnGaCrO (ZGO-NPs) are innovative nanomaterials that emit photons during long periods of time after the end of the excitation, allowing their use as diagnosis probes for in vivo optical imaging. During the excitation process, a part of the energy is stored in traps to further emit photons over long time. However, we observed in this study that some of the energy reduces molecular oxygen to produce reactive oxygen species (ROS).

Long-term toxicological effects of persistent luminescence nanoparticles after intravenous injection in mice.

The ZnGaCrO persistent luminescence nanoparticles offer the promise of revolutionary tools for biological imaging with applications such as cell tracking or tumor detection. They can be re-excited through living tissues by visible photons, allowing observations without any time constraints and avoiding the undesirable auto-fluorescence signals observed when fluorescent probes are used. Despite all these advantages, their uses demand extensive toxicological evaluation and control.

Chemically engineered persistent luminescence nanoprobes for bioimaging.

Imaging nanoprobes are a group of nanosized agents developed for providing improved contrast for bioimaging. Among various imaging probes, optical sensors capable of following biological events or progresses at the cellular and molecular levels are actually actively developed for early detection, accurate diagnosis, and monitoring of the treatment of diseases. The optical activities of nanoprobes can be tuned on demand by chemists by engineering their composition, size and surface nature.

Functionalization and characterization of persistent luminescence nanoparticles by dynamic light scattering, laser Doppler and capillary electrophoresis.

Zinc gallate nanoparticles doped with chromium (III) (ZnGa1.995O4:Cr0.005) are innovative persistent luminescence materials with particular optical properties allowing their use for in vivo imaging.