Nanocarriers with ultrahigh chromophore loading for fluorescence bio-imaging and photodynamic therapy

J. R. Navarro (1) , Frédéric Lerouge (1) , Cristina Cepraga (2) , G. Micouin (3) , Arnaud Favier (2) , D. Chateau (1) , Marie-Thérèse Charreyre (2) , Pierre-Henri Lanoe (1) , Cyrille Monnereau (1) , Frédéric Chaput (4) , Sophie Marotte (5) , Yann Leverrier (5) , Jacqueline Marvel , Kenji Kamada , Chantal Andraud (1) , Patrice L. Baldeck (6) , Stéphane Parola (1)

1 LC - Laboratoire de Chimie - UMR5182
2 IMP - Ingénierie des Matériaux Polymères
3 LTM - Laboratoire des technologies de la microélectronique
4 LPMC - Laboratoire de physique de la matière condensée
5 I2V - Immunité infection vaccination
6 LSP - Laboratoire de Spectrométrie Physique

We describe the design of original nanocarriers that allows for ultrahigh chromophore loading while maintaining the photo-activity of each individual molecule. They consist in shells of charged biocompatible polymers grafted on gold nanospheres. The self-organization of extended polymer chains results from repulsive charges and steric interactions that are optimized by tuning the surface curvature of nanoparticles. This type of nano-scaffolds can be used as light-activated theranostic agents for fluorescence imaging and photodynamic therapy. We demonstrate that, labeled with a fluorescent photosensitizer, it can localize therapeutic molecules before triggering the cell death of B16-F10 melanoma with an efficiency that is similar to the efficiency of the polymer conjugate alone, and with the advantage of extremely high local loading of photosensitizers (object concentration in the picomolar range).

Mots clés: Bio-imaging; Fluorescence; Gold; Nanocarriers; PDT

Domaines: Polymères; Matériaux

J. R. Navarro, Frédéric Lerouge, Cristina Cepraga, G. Micouin, Arnaud Favier, et al.. Nanocarriers with ultrahigh chromophore loading for fluorescence bio-imaging and photodynamic therapy. Biomaterials, 2013, 34, pp.8344-8351. ⟨10.1016/j.biomaterials.2013.07.032⟩. ⟨hal-00870433⟩