Rapid and effective labeling of brain tissue using TAT-conjugated CdS:Mn/ZnS quantum dots.

TAT (a cell penetrating peptide)-conjugated CdSratioMn/ZnS quantum dots (Qdots), intra-arterially delivered to a rat brain, rapidly (within a few minutes) labeled the brain tissue without manipulating the blood-brain-barrier (BBB). Qdot loading was sufficiently high that it allowed a gross fluorescent visualization of the whole rat brain using a low power hand-held UV lamp. Histological data clearly showed that TAT-conjugated Qdots migrated beyond the endothelial cell line and reached the brain parenchyma. Qdots without TAT did not label the brain tissue confirming the fact that TAT peptide was necessary to overcome the BBB. The present study clearly demonstrated the possibility of delivering a large amount of Qdot-based imaging agents to the brain tissue.

[1]  Swadeshmukul Santra,et al.  Synthesis of water-dispersible fluorescent, radio-opaque, and paramagnetic CdS:Mn/ZnS quantum dots: a multifunctional probe for bioimaging. , 2005, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[2]  Ralph Weissleder,et al.  Differential conjugation of tat peptide to superparamagnetic nanoparticles and its effect on cellular uptake. , 2002, Bioconjugate chemistry.

[3]  S. Nie,et al.  In vivo cancer targeting and imaging with semiconductor quantum dots , 2004, Nature Biotechnology.

[4]  R. L. Juliano,et al.  Conjugates of Antisense Oligonucleotides with the Tat and Antennapedia Cell-Penetrating Peptides: Effects on Cellular Uptake, Binding to Target Sequences, and Biologic Actions , 2004, Pharmaceutical Research.

[5]  Priscille Brodin,et al.  A Truncated HIV-1 Tat Protein Basic Domain Rapidly Translocates through the Plasma Membrane and Accumulates in the Cell Nucleus* , 1997, The Journal of Biological Chemistry.

[6]  C. Sylvén,et al.  Factors Controlling the Efficiency of Tat-mediated Plasmid DNA Transfer , 2004, Journal of drug targeting.

[7]  Gunnar P. H. Dietz,et al.  Delivery of bioactive molecules into the cell: the Trojan horse approach , 2004, Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience.

[8]  S. Schwarze,et al.  In vivo protein transduction: delivery of a biologically active protein into the mouse. , 1999, Science.

[9]  Weihong Tan,et al.  TAT conjugated, FITC doped silica nanoparticles for bioimaging applications. , 2004, Chemical communications.

[10]  J Barsoum,et al.  Tat-mediated delivery of heterologous proteins into cells. , 1994, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.