Lipoprotein nanosurfaces for biological imaging

A new material based on quantum dots has been developed by a team of scientists. The material, which consists of lipoprotein nanosurfaces, is quickly absorbed by the cells and maintains its fluorescence property, making it a particularly suitable material for cell imaging, a method that helps in understanding the mechanisms of disease development.

A new material based on quantum dots has been developed by a team of scientists. The material, which consists of lipoprotein nanosurfaces, is quickly absorbed by the cells and maintains its fluorescence property, making it a particularly suitable material for cell imaging, a method that helps in understanding the mechanisms of disease development.

An interdisciplinary team of researchers from the University of Illinois has developed a new material based on quantum dots. The material, which consists of lipoprotein nanosurfaces, is quickly absorbed by the cells and maintains its fluorescence property, making it a particularly suitable material for cell imaging, a method that helps in understanding the mechanisms of disease development. "Quantum dots are now widely studied for their unique physical, optical and electronic properties," explained Andrew M. Smith, professor of bioengineering at the University of Illinois. "Their most important characteristic is their ability to emit stable and bright light that can be adjusted across the various shades in the light spectrum. This characteristic has made them useful materials in diverse applications, starting with imaging materials and molecular detectors in cells and tissues and ending as light-emitting components in LED devices and television and computer screens."

"These studies are the first example of flat quantum dots called nanosurfaces, in the framework of biological systems," says the lead researcher whose article was published in the scientific journal Journal of the American Chemical Society. "We have developed a unique nanoparticle with a flat structure, similar to a board, that lies inside a biological particle. These nanoparticles are based on quantum dots and similarly emit light, however, they have interesting optical and structural properties thanks to their different structure. Their light absorption and emission properties are more similar to those of quantum wells, which are thin layers used for laser production. We found that these particles uniquely penetrate into cells very quickly and we use them as detectors inside living cells."

"The new colloidal material is a combination of an inorganic quantum well and an organic nano-board consisting of phospholipids (amphipathic lipid) and lipoproteins," explains the researcher. "The phospholipids bind to the flat walls of the nano-surfaces and the lipoproteins bind to the curved lips, this to provide a biologically adapted particulate material. These materials have long-term stability in biological solutions and even in high-salt solutions, and they emit fluorescent lighting with a brightness equal to that obtained from ordinary quantum dots."

According to the lead researcher, these particles are particularly useful for single-molecule imaging, where the quantum dots have the greatest impact thanks to the combination of their unique properties of bright light emission and tiny size. Quantum dots have recently helped uncover a host of new biological processes related to human health and disease. "We believe that the new capabilities provided by the nanosurfaces are important for the imaging of biological molecules and cells, but in the past it was very challenging to stabilize these nanocrystals in a biological medium due to their unusual dimensions that caused them to stick to each other, to form aggregates that lost their fluorescence property . This new family of nanosurfaces solves these problems and the materials are stable even in harsh biological conditions, such as high salt solutions, since they are embedded in lipoproteins. These substances can be used to track metastatic cancer cells in the body. Unique structures of these new nanoparticles were also found to be more effective in delivering drugs into tumors, compared to regular spherical particles.

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