Hyaluronic acid-magnetic fluorescent polydopamine/gold-based fluorescent probe for bioimaging of CD44 over-expressed cancer cells

CD44 is a transmembrane glycoprotein (P-glycoprotein) that expressed in a large scale on the surface membrane of breast cancer cells. The CD44 receptor has been employed for various medial aims such as imaging, drug delivery, and etc. In the present work, the surface of citrate-capped gold nanoparticles (cit-AuNPs) was modified with magnetic polydopamine nanoparticles to provide fluorescent nanocomposite and amine groups for attachment to hyaluronic acid (HA) molecules. HA molecules have been bonded to the surface of fluorescent polydopamine nanoparticles (FPNPs) via the formation of amide bonds between carboxyl (COOH) group of HA and amine groups of the FPNPs. Due to the presence of the HA molecules, the MNPs-FPNPs/AuNPs/HA can attach to the CD44-overexpressed MCF-7 cells with high specificity and could be employed for bioimaging aims. Fluorescence microscopy was applied for bioimaging of the MNPs-FPNPs/AuNPs/HA internalized cancer cells. Obtained results offered that the MNPs-FPNPs/AuNPs/HA can especially and efficiently internalize to the cells and differentiate CD44-positive cancer cells and normal cells of HFFF-2 cells. Also, the MNPs-FPNPs/AuNPs/HA has a biocompatible nature with the toxic levels around 250 μg/mL levels. As a conclusion, the MNPs-FPNPs/AuNPs/HA is a good candidate for specific bioimaging applications of CD44−overexpressed MCF-7 cancer cells with high physicochemical stability and advantageous spectral features.