Theragnostic Glycol Chitosan-Conjugated Gold Nanoparticles for Photoacoustic Imaging of Regional Lymph Nodes and Delivering Tumor Antigen to Lymph Nodes

Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Research Institute of Advanced Materials (RIAM), Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Korea

School of Electrical Engineering, University of Costa Rica, San Pedro Montes de Oca, San Jose 11501-2060, Costa Rica

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KU-KIST Graduate School of Converging Science and Technology, Korea University, 145 Anam-ro, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul 02841, Korea

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School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 777 Atlantic Drive, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA

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Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University School of Medicine, 313 Ferst Drive NW, Atlanta, GA 30318, USA

Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.

^†

These authors contributed equally to this work.

Academic Editors: Alexandru Mihai Grumezescu and Oana Gherasim

Nanomaterials 2021, 11(7), 1700; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano11071700

Received: 7 June 2021 / Revised: 23 June 2021 / Accepted: 24 June 2021 / Published: 28 June 2021

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metallic and Metal Oxide Nanoparticles and Their Applications)

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Abstract

Lymph node mapping is important in cancer immunotherapy because the morphology of lymph nodes is one of the crucial evaluation criteria of immune responses. We developed new theragnostic glycol-chitosan-coated gold nanoparticles (GC-AuNPs), which highlighted lymph nodes in ultrasound-guided photoacoustic (US/PA) imaging. Moreover, the ovalbumin epitope was conjugated GC-AuNPs (OVA-GC-AuNPs) for delivering tumor antigen to lymph node resident macrophage. In vitro studies proved the vigorous endocytosis activity of J774A.1 macrophage and consequent strong photoacoustic signals from them. The macrophages also presented a tumor antigen when OVA-GC-AuNPs were used for cellular uptake. After the lingual injection of GC-AuNPs into healthy mice, cervical lymph nodes were visible in a US/PA imaging system with high contrast. Three-dimensional analysis of lymph nodes revealed that the accumulation of GC-AuNPs in the lymph node increased as the post-injection time passed. Histological analysis showed GC-AuNPs or OVA-GC-AuNPs located in subcapsular and medullar sinuses where macrophages are abundant. Our new theragnostic GC-AuNPs present a superior performance in US/PA imaging of lymph nodes without targeting moieties or complex surface modification. Simultaneously, GC-AuNPs were able to deliver tumor antigens to cause macrophages to present the OVA epitope at targeted lymph nodes, which would be valuable for cancer immunotherapy. View Full-Text

Keywords: theragnostic gold nanoparticle; lymph node; photoacoustic imaging; tumor antigen delivery; ovalbumin; glycol chitosan; immunotherapy

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Sun, I.-C.; Jo, S.; Dumani, D.; Yun, W.S.; Yoon, H.Y.; Lim, D.-K.; Ahn, C.-H.; Emelianov, S.; Kim, K. Theragnostic Glycol Chitosan-Conjugated Gold Nanoparticles for Photoacoustic Imaging of Regional Lymph Nodes and Delivering Tumor Antigen to Lymph Nodes. Nanomaterials 2021, 11, 1700. https://doi.org/10.3390/nano11071700

AMA Style

Sun I-C, Jo S, Dumani D, Yun WS, Yoon HY, Lim D-K, Ahn C-H, Emelianov S, Kim K. Theragnostic Glycol Chitosan-Conjugated Gold Nanoparticles for Photoacoustic Imaging of Regional Lymph Nodes and Delivering Tumor Antigen to Lymph Nodes. Nanomaterials. 2021; 11(7):1700. https://doi.org/10.3390/nano11071700

Chicago/Turabian Style

Sun, In-Cheol, SeongHoon Jo, Diego Dumani, Wan S. Yun, Hong Y. Yoon, Dong-Kwon Lim, Cheol-Hee Ahn, Stanislav Emelianov, and Kwangmeyung Kim. 2021. "Theragnostic Glycol Chitosan-Conjugated Gold Nanoparticles for Photoacoustic Imaging of Regional Lymph Nodes and Delivering Tumor Antigen to Lymph Nodes" Nanomaterials 11, no. 7: 1700. https://doi.org/10.3390/nano11071700

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Theragnostic Glycol Chitosan-Conjugated Gold Nanoparticles for Photoacoustic Imaging of Regional Lymph Nodes and Delivering Tumor Antigen to Lymph Nodes

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