A fluorescently labelled sialic acid for high performance intraoperative tumor detection

作者:Wu Xuanjun; Tian Yunpeng; Yu Mingzhu; Lin Bijuan; Han Jiahuai; Han Shoufa*
来源:Biomaterials Science, 2014, 2(8): 1120-1127.
DOI:10.1039/c4bm00028e

摘要

Surgical resection is widely used for tumor treatment, necessitating approaches for the precise locating of elusive tumor foci. We report the high performance detection of tumors in mice with fluorescein-isothiocyanate (FITC) labelled sialic acid (FITC-SA), a fluorescent monosaccharide with low cytoxicity. Analysis of mice intravenously injected with FITC-SA revealed high target-to-background fluorescence ratios in subcutaneous tumors and liver tumor implants with 0.2-5 mm diameters, which are significantly below the clinical threshold of minimal residual cancer (similar to 1 cm clearance). Extracellular FITC-SA is quickly cleared from circulation whereas the intracellular FITC-SA could be metabolically incorporated into glycoproteins via a cellular sialylation pathway. Compared with FITC-SA-laden nanoparticles, free FITC-SA is preferentially and quickly taken up by tumors in mice and displays high tumor-to-background signal contrast, suggesting the potential for fluorescence directed surgical ablation of tumors.