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Rapid, accurate, and convenient diagnosis is essential for effective disease management. Various detection methods, such as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, have been extensively used, with lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) recently emerging as a major diagnostic tool. Nanoparticles (NPs) with characteristic optical properties are used as probes for LFIA, and researchers have presented various types of optical NPs with modified optical properties. Herein, we review the literature on LFIA with optical NPs for the detection of specific targets in the context of diagnostics.

Quantum dots (QDs) have outstanding optical properties such as strong fluorescence, excellent photostability, broad absorption spectra, and narrow emission bands, which make them useful for bioimaging. However, cadmium (Cd)-based QDs, which have been widely studied, have potential toxicity problems. Cd-free QDs have also been studied, but their weak photoluminescence (PL) intensity makes their practical use in bioimaging challenging. In this study, Cd-free QD nanoprobes for bioimaging were fabricated by densely embedding multiple indium phosphide/zinc sulfide (InP/ZnS) QDs onto silica templates and coating them with a silica shell. The fabricated silica-coated InP/ZnS QD-embedded silica nanoparticles (SiO 2 @InP QDs@SiO 2 NPs) exhibited hydrophilic properties because of the surface silica shell. The quantum yield (QY), maximum emission peak wavelength, and full-width half-maximum (FWHM) of the final fabricated SiO 2 @InP QDs@SiO 2 NPs were 6.61%, 527.01 nm, and 44.62 nm, respectively. Moreover, the brightness of the particles could be easily controlled by adjusting the amount of InP/ZnS QDs in the SiO 2 @InP QDs@SiO 2 NPs. When SiO 2 @InP QDs@SiO 2 NPs were administered to tumor syngeneic mice, the fluorescence signal was prominently detected in the tumor because of the preferential distribution of the SiO 2 @InP QDs@SiO 2 NPs, demonstrating their applicability in bioimaging with NPs. Thus, SiO 2 @InP QDs@SiO 2 NPs have the potential to successfully replace Cd-based QDs as highly bright and biocompatible fluorescent nanoprobes.

In vivo multiplexed imaging aims for noninvasive monitoring of tumors with multiple channels without excision of the tissue. While most of the preclinical imaging has provided a number of multiplexing channels up to three, Raman imaging with surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) nanoparticles was suggested to offer higher multiplexing capability originating from their narrow spectral width. However, in vivo multiplexed SERS imaging is still in its infancy for multichannel visualization of tumors, which require both sufficient multiplicity and high sensitivity concurrently. Here we create multispectral palettes of gold multicore-near-infrared (NIR) resonant Raman dyes-silica shell SERS (NIR-SERRS) nanoparticle oligomers and demonstrate noninvasive and five-plex SERS imaging of the nanoparticle accumulation in tumors of living mice. We perform the five-plex ratiometric imaging of tumors by varying the administered ratio of the nanoparticles, which simulates the detection of multiple biomarkers with different expression levels in the tumor environment. Furthermore, since this method does not require the excision of tumor tissues at the imaging condition, we perform noninvasive and longitudinal imaging of the five-color nanoparticles in the tumors, which is not feasible with current ex vivo multiplexed tissue analysis platforms. Our work surpasses the multiplicity limit of previous preclinical tumor imaging methods while keeping enough sensitivity for tumor-targeted in vivo imaging and could enable the noninvasive assessment of multiple biological targets within the tumor microenvironment in living subjects.

Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is the best-known biomarker for early diagnosis of prostate cancer. For prostate cancer in particular, the threshold level of PSA <4.0 ng/mL in clinical samples is an important indicator. Quick and easy visual detection of the PSA level greatly helps in early detection and treatment of prostate cancer and reducing mortality. In this study, we developed optimized silica-coated silver-assembled silica nanoparticles (SiO 2 @Ag@SiO 2 NPs) that were applied to a visual lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) platform for PSA detection. During synthesis, the ratio of silica NPs to silver nitrate changed, and as the synthesized NPs exhibited distinct UV spectra and colors, most optimized SiO 2 @Ag@SiO 2 NPs showed the potential for early prostate cancer diagnosis. The PSA detection limit of our LFIA platform was 1.1 ng/mL. By applying each SiO 2 @Ag@SiO 2 NP to the visual LFIA platform, optimized SiO 2 @Ag@SiO 2 NPs were selected in the test strip, and clinical samples from prostate cancer patients were successfully detected as the boundaries of non-specific binding were clearly seen and the level of PSA was <4 ng/mL, thus providing an avenue for quick prostate cancer diagnosis and early treatment.

ZnO nanoparticles with different shapes and sizes were prepared by changing coordinating ligands. Hexagonal cones presented UV and green (∼500 nm) emissions, which originated from excitons and defects, respectively. Oxygen vacancies were found to be major defects in the hexagonal cones. Blue emission at ∼440 nm was observed for hexagonal plates, and analyses of time-resolved photoluminescence spectra showed that two transitions were responsible for this blue emission, because transitions from Zni to the valence band (430 nm) and from Zni to VZn (480 nm) were distinguished by emission wavelengths and lifetimes. The visible emissions from defects were related to the roles of coordinating ligands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Single-cell characterization techniques, such as mRNA-seq, have been applied to a diverse range of applications in cancer biology, yielding great insight into mechanisms leading to therapy resistance and tumor clonality. While single-cell techniques can yield a wealth of information, a common bottleneck is the lack of throughput, with many current processing methods being limited to the analysis of small volumes of single cell suspensions with cell densities on the order of 107 per mL. In this work, we present a high-throughput full-length mRNA-seq protocol incorporating a magnetic sifter and magnetic nanoparticle-antibody conjugates for rare cell enrichment, and Smart-seq2 chemistry for sequencing. We evaluate the efficiency and quality of this protocol with a simulated circulating tumor cell system, whereby non-small-cell lung cancer cell lines (NCI-H1650 and NCI-H1975) are spiked into whole blood, before being enriched for single-cell mRNA-seq by EpCAM-functionalized magnetic nanoparticles and the magnetic sifter. We obtain high efficiency (> 90%) capture and release of these simulated rare cells via the magnetic sifter, with reproducible transcriptome data. In addition, while mRNA-seq data is typically only used for gene expression analysis of transcriptomic data, we demonstrate the use of full-length mRNA-seq chemistries like Smart-seq2 to facilitate variant analysis of expressed genes. This enables the use of mRNA-seq data for differentiating cells in a heterogeneous population by both their phenotypic and variant profile. In a simulated heterogeneous mixture of circulating tumor cells in whole blood, we utilize this high-throughput protocol to differentiate these heterogeneous cells by both their phenotype (lung cancer versus white blood cells), and mutational profile (H1650 versus H1975 cells), in a single sequencing run. This high-throughput method can help facilitate single-cell analysis of rare cell populations, such as circulating tumor or endothelial cells, with demonstrably high-quality transcriptomic data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Silver nanoparticles were synthesized by laser (Nd:YAG, λ=1064 nm) ablation of a silver target immersed in various concentrations of NaCl solutions as well as in neat water. The concentration dependence of the surface plasmon absorption at around 400 nm was examined by analyzing the absorbance and peak shape. Significant changes in the peak intensity and full width at half maximum (FWHM) were observed. Typically, the size of the silver nanoparticles produced in 5 mM NaCl solution ranged from 5 to 50 nm, with an average size of 26 nm. Also, fragmentation of silver nanoparticles by absorption of 355 nm laser light was found to be highly effective. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles were prepared in neat deionized water by laser ablation with various ablation times (10–40min), fluences (50–130mJ/pulse), and wavelengths (1064, 532, and 355nm). The size and shape of the nanoparticles were affected only slightly by the ablation time and fluence at a wavelength of 1064nm, which was explained by a dynamic formation mechanism with surface charge effects. The nanoparticles formed by ablation at 355nm had a distinctive wire-shape with a small diameter, which was attributed to a continuous fragmentation and formation mechanism. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Optical properties of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles prepared in supercritical methanol and supercritical water were investigated. Interstitial zinc and oxygen vacancy were the major defects in the ZnO nanoparticles synthesized in supercritical methanol. The addition of oleic acid as a surface modifier resulted in the isolation of the nanoparticles and the removal of interstitial zinc. Lasing was observed with sharp longitudinal modes and a superlinear increase in the emission intensity of the ZnO nanowires synthesized in supercritical water. The band gap renormalization due to the electron–hole plasma induced a red-shift in the emission band, whereas the individual longitudinal modes were blue-shifted due to a change in refractive index. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]