Effective Hotspot Arrays Based on Non-Close-Packed Gold Nanoshells in Microporous Polystyrene Film on Acupuncture Needles

To constructing effective hotspot arrays in SERS substrates, gold nanoshells (GNSs) were assembled layer by layer on acupuncture needles by covalent absorption of bifunctional chemicals; three dimensional structures of the GNSs were locked by polystyrene (PS) coating; effective hotspots were obtained by removing bifunctional chemicals on surface of the GNSs, and the spacing between GNSs was enlarged by corroding gold shell layers of the GNSs partly. The strongest SERS signal was obtained from the SERS-active substrate with two-layer GNSs. After effective hotspot arrays were constructed in the SERS-active substrate with two-layer GNSs, its enhancement factor was higher about two to three orders of magnitude than that of the monolayer of close-packed GNSs. The hotspot arrays integrated on acupuncture needles would be used to detect low concentration of biomolecules in vivo.

Intracellular surface-enhanced Raman scattering probes based on TAT peptide-conjugated Au nanostars for distinguishing the differentiation of lung resident mesenchymal stem cells

Lung resident mesenchymal stem cells (LR-MSCs) are important regulators of pathophysiological processes including tissue repair and fibrosis, inflammation, angiogenesis and tumor formation. Therefore, increasing attention has focused on the functional differentiation of LR-MSCs. However, the distinction between the undifferentiated and differentiated LR-MSCs, which are closely related and morphologically similar, is difficult to achieve by conventional methods. In this study, by employing the TAT Peptide-conjugated Au nanostars (AuNSs) as an intracellular probe, we developed a method for the identification of LR-MSC differentiation by surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy. SERS spectra were analyzed using principal component analysis (PCA) that allowed unambiguous distinction of subtypes and monitoring of component changes during cellular differentiation. Furthermore, to ascertain whether co-culture with alveolar epithelial type II (ATII) cells and incubation with transform growth factor (TGF)-β were involved in regulating the differentiation of LR-MSCs, we investigated the protein expression levels of epithelial markers and fibroblastic markers on LR-MSCs. Our results demonstrated that co-culture with ATII cells or incubation with TGF-β could induce the differentiation of LR-MSCs as confirmed by SERS analysis, a method that is capable of noninvasive characterization of and distinction between subtypes of LR-MSCs during differentiation. We have provided a new tool that may facilitate stem cell research.

Excess of rare variants in genes that are key epigenetic regulators of spermatogenesis in the patients with non-obstructive azoospermia

Non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA), a severe form of male infertility, is often suspected to be linked to currently undefined genetic abnormalities. To explore the genetic basis of this condition, we successfully sequenced ~650 infertility-related genes in 757 NOA patients and 709 fertile males. We evaluated the contributions of rare variants to the etiology of NOA by identifying individual genes showing nominal associations and testing the genetic burden of a given biological process as a whole. We found a significant excess of rare, non-silent variants in genes that are key epigenetic regulators of spermatogenesis, such as BRWD1, DNMT1, DNMT3B, RNF17, UBR2, USP1 and USP26, in NOA patients (P = 5.5 × 10(-7)), corresponding to a carrier frequency of 22.5% of patients and 13.7% of controls (P = 1.4 × 10(-5)). An accumulation of low-frequency variants was also identified in additional epigenetic genes (BRDT and MTHFR). Our study suggested the potential associations of genetic defects in genes that are epigenetic regulators with spermatogenic failure in human.

[Penile frenulum lengthening for premature ejaculation]

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the effect of penile frenulum lengthening in the treatment of premature ejaculation (PE).

METHODS

Thirty-four males with PE were enrolled in this study, of whom 8 had received circumcision six months before and 4 had redundant prepuce, all with short frenulum. Those with a history of circumcision underwent reconstruction and lengthening of the frenulum, and those without received frenulum lengthening only.

RESULTS

Compared with the baseline, the intravaginal ejaculation latency time (IELT) was significantly increased at 1 month after operation ([1.35 ± 0.49] vs [5.71 ± 2.69] min, t = -9.42, P <0.01), (1.42 ± 0.5) vs (5.31 ± 2.74) min in the patients without circumcision (t = -7.41, P <0.01), (1.12 ± 0.35) vs (7.00 ± 2.20) min in those with circumcision (t = -7.24, P <0.01), and (1.50 ± 0.58) vs (4.75 ± 1.71) min in those with redundant prepuce (t = -3.81, P <0.05). Totally, 94% of the patients were satisfied with their sexual intercourse postoperatively.

CONCLUSION

Penile frenulum plays an important role in penile erection. Reconstruction and/or lengthening of the frenulum can prolong penile erection and IELT in PE patients.

Theranostic nanoparticles carrying doxorubicin attenuate targeting ligand specific antibody responses following systemic delivery

Understanding the effects of immune responses on targeted delivery of nanoparticles is important for clinical translations of new cancer imaging and therapeutic nanoparticles. In this study, we found that repeated administrations of magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) conjugated with mouse or human derived targeting ligands induced high levels of ligand specific antibody responses in normal and tumor bearing mice while injections of unconjugated mouse ligands were weakly immunogenic and induced a very low level of antibody response in mice. Mice that received intravenous injections of targeted and polyethylene glycol (PEG)-coated IONPs further increased the ligand specific antibody production due to differential uptake of PEG-coated nanoparticles by macrophages and dendritic cells. However, the production of ligand specific antibodies was markedly inhibited following systemic delivery of theranostic nanoparticles carrying a chemotherapy drug, doxorubicin. Targeted imaging and histological analysis revealed that lack of the ligand specific antibodies led to an increase in intratumoral delivery of targeted nanoparticles. Results of this study support the potential of further development of targeted theranostic nanoparticles for the treatment of human cancers.

Au nanoparticle decorated resin microspheres: synthesis and application in electrochemical cytosensors for sensitive and selective detection of lung cancer A549 cells

A novel cytosensor that can sensitively differentiate cancer cells from normal ones is prepared by using antibody-decorated resin microspheres.

Free radical-quenched SERS probes for detecting H2O2 and glucose

For developing a free radical-quenched surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) probe, starch, a linear molecule, was used as a protective layer to coat gold nanoshells (GNSs) as enhancement substrates and then, methylene blue (MB) was absorbed on the starch-coated GNSs as a free radical-responsive element.

Multiplexing determination of lung cancer biomarkers using electrochemical and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopic techniques

A reliable immunosensor for simultaneous detection of carcinoembryonic antigen and cytokeratin-19 by complementary advantages of the electrochemical and SERS technologies.

A SERS protocol as a potential tool to access 6-mercaptopurine release accelerated by glutathione-S-transferase

The developed method for monitoring GST, an important drug metabolic enzyme, could greatly facilitate researches on relative biological fields.

Abstract 691: Down-regulation of Wnt10b following targeted theranostic nanoparticles in a patient derived xenograft model of triple negative breast cancer

BACKGROUND: Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a highly heterogeneous and aggressive disease with a poor clinical prognosis. While the primary therapeutic option for TNBC patients is pre-operative neo-adjuvant chemotherapy followed by surgical resection, about 60% of patients develop drug resistance and have a very high incidence of tumor recurrence and poorer prognosis. Given its poor survival and lack of available targeted therapeutics, the development of novel treatment options for chemo-resistant TNBC is critical. Cancer progenitor cells or stem-like cells (CSCs) are generally thought to contribute to the drug-resistant phenotype of TNBC which are typically identified as CD44+/CD24-. CSCs can also rely on activation of stem cell signaling through the Wnt/ β-catenin pathway. Components of the Wnt pathway, including Wnt ligands, have been shown to be over-expressed in human breast cancers.

Our lab has developed urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR) targeted theranostic magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) carrying therapeutic agents that are clinically beneficial to TNBC patients such as doxorubicin (Dox). uPAR is an ideal target due to its high expression in malignant tumors including aggressive breast cancer tissues and tumor stromal cells that are enriched in TNBC tissues.

METHODS: We generated patient derived xenografts of drug-resistant TNBC for testing the therapeutic efficacy of uPAR-targeted nanoparticle-drugs from tumor fragments from patients obtained from an ongoing Phase II clinical trial at Winship Cancer Institute. Histological analysis of post-chemotherapy TNBC with or without uPAR-targeted IONP-Dox was conducted using immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence techniques.

RESULTS: We have previously reported that treatment with uPAR-targeted IONP-Dox caused tumor growth inhibition following systemic delivery. We further investigated the effect of uPAR-targeted IONP on Wnt10b, a ligand of the Wnt signaling pathway. We observed that uPAR-targeted-IONP-Dox treatment decreases Wnt10b expression relative to the untreated and conventional Dox groups. We also investigated the level of CD44 expression, which is a target gene of the Wnt signaling pathway. We observed that Wnt10b and CD44 expression was co-localized and that treatment with uPAR-targeted IONP-Dox decreased the level of CD44 expression that is comparable to the level of decrease in Wnt10b expression.

CONCLUSION: Our findings show that uPAR-targeted theranostic IONP can effectively target the Wnt activated CSC population. It is likely that uPAR expressing tumor cells are potential drug resistant cell populations with breast cancer stem-like cell properties. Our results support further investigation of theranostic nanoparticles as a viable therapeutic approach to overcome drug resistance in TNBC.

Citation Format: Jasmine Miller-Kleinhenz, Weiping Qian, Ruth O'Regan, Toncred Styblo, Amelia Zelnak, Andrew Wang, Lily Yang. Down-regulation of Wnt10b following targeted theranostic nanoparticles in a patient derived xenograft model of triple negative breast cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 691. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-691

Abstract 3624: Activation of tumor specific antibody response following systemic delivery of receptor targeted nanoparticles into Balb/c mice bearing mouse mammary tumors

Targeted nanoparticles (NP) offer a great opportunity for developing new cancer imaging agents and targeted drug delivery carriers. Although increasing evidence supports the potential of the targeted NP for early cancer detection and drug delivery, the impact of systemic delivery of targeted NP on the immune response in the tumor has yet to be addressed. The possible immune enhancement effect of NP has attracted great attention to apply various NP for vaccine development since NP can be nonspecifically taken up by macrophages. In this study, we developed epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) receptor-targeted dual imaging modality magnetic iron oxide NP (IONP) using single chain antibody to EGFR (ScFvEGFR) without or with chemotherapy drug doxorubicin (Dox) for targeted tumor imaging and therapy of triple negative breast cancer. The NP were injected into normal Balb/c mice or mice bearing 4T1 mammary tumors once per week for three weeks, then serum and tumors were collected. Systemic delivery of the receptor-targeted NP led to accumulation of NP in the tumors and inhibited tumor growth. Using ELISA on tumor cell lysates and intact tumor cells, we found that mouse serum from targeted IONP had the highest level of mammary tumor specific antibody titers compared to mice that received Dox only, non-targeted NP and no treatment control. However, the antibody titer was decreased in the mice that received ScFvEGFR-IONP-Dox. To understand the antibody activation mechanism by targeted delivery of ScFvEGFR-IONP but not ScFvEGFR-IONP-Dox, we examined changes in the amount, phenotype, and localization of antigen presenting macrophages using a pan-macrophage (CD68) and M2 macrophage (CD163) and also dendritic cells (CD83) markers in frozen tumor tissue sections. Results of double labeling immunofluorescence against CD68 and CD163 showed the majority macrophage subtype at the tumor edge was M2 for the tumors treated with ScFvEGFR-IONP with and without Dox. However, in the central tumor area M1 macrophages was the main phenotype in ScFvEGFR -IONP-Dox treated tumors while ScFvEGFR -IONP still expressed majority M2. Also, a higher level of CD83+ cells infiltrated into the central tumor area of ScFvEGFR-IONP compared to ScFvEGFR-IONP-Dox. Results of our study suggest that targeted delivery of ScFvEGFR-IONP into tumor is able to activate intratumoral macrophages and dendritic cells to antigen presentation and stimulate tumor specific antibody responses while ScFvEGFR-IONP-Dox had decreased amounts of CD163 and CD83. Therefore, targeted delivery of NP into tumors and infiltration of antigen-presenting macrophages into the center of tumors are important for the activation of tumor specific antibody responses. This study could have clinical implications in development of NP imaging and therapy agents for cancer detection and treatment.

Citation Format: Christina Ward, Weiping Qian, Emmy Yang, Erica Bozeman, Y. Andrew Wang, Lily Yang. Activation of tumor specific antibody response following systemic delivery of receptor targeted nanoparticles into Balb/c mice bearing mouse mammary tumors. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 3624. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-3624

Inhibition of Wnt/β-catenin signaling promotes epithelial differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells and repairs bleomycin-induced lung injury

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is a progressive lung disorder of unknown etiology. Previous studies have shown that aberrant activation of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling cascade occurs in lungs of patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Given the important roles of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway in the development of pulmonary fibrosis, we targeted this pathway for the intervention of pulmonary fibrosis with XAV939, a small molecule that specifically inhibits Tankyrase 1/2, eventually leading to the degradation of β-catenin and suppression of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. Our results demonstrated that XAV939 significantly inhibited the activation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling and attenuated bleomycin-induced lung fibrosis in mice, and thus improved the survival of mice with lung injury. Interestingly, previous investigations have confirmed that endogenous and exogenous mesenchymal stem cells could be recruited to the injured lung, although the exact effects of these cells are debatable. To determine the effect of Wnt/β-catenin signaling in the epithelial differentiation of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs), we established a coculture system that contains BM-MSCs and alveolar type II epithelial cells. The in vitro experiments demonstrated that XAV939 could promote the differentiation of BM-MSCs into an epithelium-like phenotype in the coculture system. We also found that XAV939 could inhibit the proliferation and myofibroblast differentiation of NIH/3T3 fibroblasts. This work supports that inhibition of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway may be exploited for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis for which effective treatment strategies are still lacking.

Molecular photoacoustic tomography of breast cancer using receptor targeted magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles as contrast agents

In this report, we present a breast imaging technique combining high-resolution near-infrared (NIR) light induced photoacoustic tomography (PAT) with NIR dye-labeled amino-terminal fragments of urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR) targeted magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (NIR830-ATF-IONP) for breast cancer imaging using an orthotopic mouse mammary tumor model. We show that accumulation of the targeted nanoparticles in the tumor led to photoacoustic contrast enhancement due to the high absorption of iron oxide nanoparticles (IONP). NIR fluorescence images were used to validate specific delivery of NIR830-ATF-IONP to mouse mammary tumors. We found that systemic delivery of the targeted IONP produced 4- and 10-fold enhancement in photoacoustic signals in the tumor, compared to the tumor of the mice that received non-targeted IONP or control mice. The use of targeted nanoparticles allowed imaging of tumors located as deep as 3.1 cm beneath the normal tissues. Our study indicates the potential of the combination of photoacoustic tomography and receptor-targeted NIR830-ATF-IONP as a clinical tool that can provide improved specificity and sensitivity for breast cancer detection.

[Relationship between body mass index and outcome of in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer cycle in patients with endometriosis]

OBJECTIVE

To explore the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and clinical outcomes of in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer (IVF/ICSI-ET) cycles in patients with endometriosis.

METHODS

We retrospectively analyzed the data of infertile women with endometriosis undergoing 244 IVF/ICSI-ET cycles between January, 2011 and August, 2012. The patients, categorized into 3 groups with mild endometriosis, moderate to severe endometriosis, and no endometriosis (control), underwent a long protocol, and the relationship of the general conditions, dose of gonadotropin, days of stimulation, BMI, number of oocytes retrieved and embryos transferred with the outcome of IVF were analyzed.

RESULTS

There was significant difference between moderate to severe endometriosis group and the control group in the number of ampules, oocytes retrieved and embryos transferred. The patients with moderate or severe endometriosis had significantly lower BMI and clinical pregnancy rate than those with mild or no endometriosis.

CONCLUSION

Endometriosis is inversely correlated with BMI, and BMI of the patients with endometriosis may affect the pregnancy rate of IVF cycles.

Activated Wnt signaling induces myofibroblast differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells, contributing to pulmonary fibrosis

Acute lung injury may lead to fibrogenesis. However, no treatment is currently available. This study was conducted to determine the effects of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in a model of HCl-induced acute lung injury in Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats. Stromal cell-derived factor (SDF)-1 and its receptor CXC chemokine receptor (CXCR)4 have been shown to participate in mobilizing MSCs. Adenovirus carrying the CXCR4 gene was used to transfect MSCs in order to increase the engraftment numbers of MSCs at injured sites. Histological examination data demonstrated that the engraftment of MSCs did not attenuate lung injury and pulmonary fibrosis. The results showed that engraftment of MSCs almost differentiated into myofibroblasts, but rarely differentiated into lung epithelial cells. Additionally, it was demonstrated that activated canonical Wnt/β-catenin signaling in injured lung tissue regulated the myofibroblast differentiation of MSCs in vivo. The in vitro study results demonstrated that activation of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling stimulated MSCs to express myofibroblast markers; however, this process was attenuated by Wnt antagonist DKK1. Therefore, the results demonstrated that the aberrant activation of Wnt signaling induces the myofibroblast differentiation of engrafted MSCs, thus contributing to pulmonary fibrosis following lung injury.

Active targeting using HER-2-affibody-conjugated nanoparticles enabled sensitive and specific imaging of orthotopic HER-2 positive ovarian tumors

Despite advances in cancer diagnosis and treatment, ovarian cancer remains one of the most fatal cancer types. The development of targeted nanoparticle imaging probes and therapeutics offers promising approaches for early detection and effective treatment of ovarian cancer. In this study, HER-2 targeted magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) are developed by conjugating a high affinity and small size HER-2 affibody that is labeled with a unique near infrared dye (NIR-830) to the nanoparticles. Using a clinically relevant orthotopic human ovarian tumor xenograft model, it is shown that HER-2 targeted IONPs are selectively delivered into both primary and disseminated ovarian tumors, enabling non-invasive optical and MR imaging of the tumors as small as 1 mm in the peritoneal cavity. It is determined that HER-2 targeted delivery of the IONPs is essential for specific and sensitive imaging of the HER-2 positive tumor since we are unable to detect the imaging signal in the tumors following systemic delivery of non-targeted IONPs into the mice bearing HER-2 positive SKOV3 tumors. Furthermore, imaging signals and the IONPs are not detected in HER-2 low expressing OVCAR3 tumors after systemic delivery of HER-2 targeted-IONPs. Since HER-2 is expressed in a high percentage of ovarian cancers, the HER-2 targeted dual imaging modality IONPs have potential for the development of novel targeted imaging and therapeutic nanoparticles for ovarian cancer detection, targeted drug delivery, and image-guided therapy and surgery.

uPAR-targeted optical imaging contrasts as theranostic agents for tumor margin detection

Complete removal of tumors by surgery is the most important prognostic factor for cancer patients with the early stage cancers. The ability to identify invasive tumor edges of the primary tumor, locally invaded small tumor lesions, and drug resistant residual tumors following neoadjuvant therapy during surgery should significantly reduce the incidence of local tumor recurrence and improve survival of cancer patients. In this study, we report that urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) and its receptor (uPAR) are the ligand/cell surface target pair for the development of targeted optical imaging probes for enhancing imaging contrasts in the tumor border. Recombinant peptides of the amino terminal fragment (ATF) of the receptor binding domain of uPA were labeled with near infrared fluorescence (NIR) dye molecules either as peptide-imaging or peptide-conjugated nanoparticle imaging probes. Systemic delivery of the uPAR-targeted imaging probes in mice bearing orthotopic human breast or pancreatic tumor xenografts or mouse mammary tumors led to the accumulation of the probes in the tumor and stromal cells, resulting in strong signals for optical imaging of tumors and identification of tumor margins. Histological analysis showed that a high level of uPAR-targeted nanoparticles was present in the tumor edge or active tumor stroma immediately adjacent to the tumor cells. Furthermore, following targeted therapy using uPAR-targeted theranostic nanoparticles, residual tumors were detectable by optical imaging through the imaging contrasts produced by NIR-dye-labeled theranostic nanoparticles in drug resistant tumor cells. Therefore, results of our study support the potential of the development of uPAR-targeted imaging and theranostic agents for image-guided surgery.