Fluorescent silica nanoparticles for cancer imaging.

In recent years, fluorescent silica nanoparticles (FSNPs) received immense interest in cancer imaging. FSNPs are a new class of engineered optical probes consisting of silica NPs loaded with fluorescent dye molecules. These probes exhibit some attractive features, such as photostability and brightness, which allow sensitive imaging of cancer cells. In general, FSNPs are chemically synthesized in solution using appropriate silane-based precursors. Fluorescent dye molecules are entrapped during the synthesis process. The synthetic process involves hydrolysis and condensation reactions of silane precursors. Stöber's sol-gel and water-in-oil (W/O) microemulsion methods are two popular chemical methods that have been used for synthesizing FSNPs. Silica matrix is capable of carrying hundreds of fluorescent dye molecules in each FSNP, resulting in bright fluorescence. In FSNPs, fluorescent molecules are somewhat protected by the surrounding silica layer, resulting in good photostability. For cancer cell imaging, surface modification of FSNPs is often necessary to obtain appropriate surface functional groups to improve NP aqueous dispersibility as well as bioconjugation capability. Using conventional bioconjugate chemistry, cancer cell-specific biomolecules are then attached to the surface-modified FSNPs. For targeting cancer cells, the FSNPs are often conjugated to specific biomolecules such as antibodies, aptamers, and folic acid. In this chapter, different approaches for the FSNP design will be discussed and some representative protocols for FSNP synthesis will be provided. We will also discuss FSNP surface modification and bioconjugation techniques that are useful for cancer cell imaging.