Genetically encoded self-assembling iron oxide nanoparticles as a possible platform for cancer-cell tracking.
Pharmaceutics 13:397 (2021)
The study of growth and possible metastasis in animal models of tumors would benefit from reliable cell labels for noninvasive whole-organism imaging techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging. Genetically encoded cell-tracking reporters have the advantage that they are contrast-selective for viable cells with intact protein expression machinery. Besides, these reporters do not suffer from dilution during cell division. Encapsulins, which are bacterial protein nanocompartments, can serve as genetically controlled labels for multimodal detection of cells. Such nanocompartments can host various guest molecules inside their lumen. These include, for example, fluorescent proteins or enzymes with ferroxidase activity leading to biomineralization of iron oxide inside the encapsulin nanoshell. The aim of this work was to implement heterologous expression of encapsulin systems from Quasibacillus thermotolerans using the fluorescent reporter protein mScarlet-I and ferroxidase IMEF in the human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line HepG2. The successful expression of self-assembled encapsulin nanocompartments with functional cargo proteins was confirmed by fluorescence microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Also, coexpression of encapsulin nanoshells, ferroxidase cargo, and iron transporter led to an increase in T2-weighted contrast in magnetic resonance imaging of HepG2 cells. The results demonstrate that the encapsulin cargo system from Q. thermotolerans may be suitable for multimodal imaging of cancer cells and could contribute to further in vitro and in vivo studies.
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Publication type
Article: Journal article
Document type
Scientific Article
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Keywords
Biogenic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles ; Cell Tracking ; Encapsulins ; Fluorescence ; Genetically Controlled Imaging Reporters ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Visualization Of Cancer Cells
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Language
english
Publication Year
2021
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2021
ISSN (print) / ISBN
1999-4923
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1999-4923
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Volume: 13,
Issue: 3,
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Article Number: 397
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MDPI
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St Alban-anlage 66, Ch-4052 Basel, Switzerland
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Reviewing status
Peer reviewed
Institute(s)
Insitute of Synthetic Biomedicine (ISBM)
POF-Topic(s)
30205 - Bioengineering and Digital Health
Research field(s)
Enabling and Novel Technologies
PSP Element(s)
G-509300-001
Grants
Helmholtz-RSF Joint Research Groups funding program
Copyright
Erfassungsdatum
2021-05-26