Peptide-Conjugated Quantum Dots Act as the Target Marker for Human Pancreatic Carcinoma Cells.

Shuang-ling Li, Jing Yang, Xiao-fei Lei, Jian-na Zhang, Hong-li Yang, Kun Li, Chang-qing Xu

Index: Cell Physiol. Biochem. 38 , 1121-8, (2016)

Full Text: HTML

Abstract

In the present study, we describe a novel and straightforward approach to produce a cyclic- arginine-glycine-aspartic (RGD)-peptide-conjugated quantum dot (QD) probe as an ideal target tumor biomarker. Due to its specific structure, the probe can be used for targeted imaging of pancreatic carcinoma cells.Pancreatic carcinoma cells were routinely cultured and marked with QD-RGD probe. The QD-RGD probe on the fluorescence-labeled cancer cell was observed by fluorescence microscopy and laser confocal microscopy. Cancer cell viability was detected by MTT assay after culturing with QD-RGD probe.Fluorescence microscopy and laser confocal microscopy displayed that 10nmol/L QD-RGD probe was able to effectively mark pancreatic carcinoma cells. In comparison with organic dyes and fluorescent proteins, the quantum dot-RGD probe had unique optical and electronic properties.QD-RGD probe has a low cytotoxicity with an excellent optical property and biocompatibility. These findings support further evaluation of QD-RGD probes for the early detection of pancreatic cancer.© 2016 The Author(s) Published by S. Karger AG, Basel.