Mona Fazel Ghaziyani
1 
, Mohammd Pourhassan Moghaddam
2,3, Daryoush Shahbazi-Gahrouei
1* , Mostafa Ghavami
4, Ali Mohammadi
2, Mehran Mesgari Abbasi
5, Behzad Baradaran
2* 1 Department of Medical Physics, School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
2 Immunology Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
3 Department of Medical Biotechnology, Faculty of Advanced Medical Sciences, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
4 Department of Radiology, Paramedical School, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
5 Drug Applied Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
Abstract
Purpose: Molecular imaging is one of the import methods for recognition of cancer at the early stage in order to enhance the capacity of remedy. This study was aimed to introduce a new contrast agent that was targeted with CD24 so as to improve the CT scan detection of cancer cells with higher CD24 expression. Methods: The surface modifications of gold nanoparticles (Au-NPs) were done with long PEG (HS-PEG-CH3O) and short PEG (HS-PEG-COOH) chains to enhance their stability and capacity for immobilization of different antibodies. MTT assay was carried out to assess the biocompatibility of the NPs. The obtained contrast agent was implemented in the targeted CT imaging based on in vitro and in vivo studies of breast cancer. Results: The results revealed that the attached CD24 to the cell surface of PEGylated Au-NPs could enhance significantly the cells CT number (40.45 HU in 4T1, while it was 16.61 HU in CT26) It was shown that the attenuation coefficient of the molecularly targeted cells was more than 2 times excessive than the control groups. Further, the tumor region in model of xenograft tumor has higher density compare to the omnipaque groups, 60 min after injection (45 Hu vs.81 Hu). These results showed that the nanoparticles stayed in tumor region for longer time. Conclusion: It is predicted that the synthesized nanoparticle can be used as computed tomography contrast agent. Also, it can be used to identify the tumor cells with higher expression of CD24 at the early stages more efficiently compare to the other routine methods.