Facile synthesis of CdTe@GdS fluorescent-magnetic nanoparticles for tumor-targeted dual-modal imaging.

Multimodal imaging has made great contribution for diagnosis and therapy of disease since it can provide more effective and complementary information in comparison to any single imaging modality. The design and fabrication of fluorescent-magnetic nanoparticles for multimodal imaging has rapidly developed over the years. Herein, we demonstrate the facile synthesis of GdS coated CdTe nanoparticles (CdTe@GdS NPs) as multimodal agents for fluorescence (FL) and T1-weighted magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. These nanoparticles obtain both prominent fluorescent and paramagnetic properties by coating the GdS shell on the surface of CdTe core via a simple room-temperature route in aqueous solution directly. It is shown that the as-prepared CdTe@GdS NPs have high quantum yield (QY) value of 12% and outstanding longitudinal relaxation rate (r1) of 11.25 mM s(-1), which allow them to be employed as FL/MR dual-modal imaging contrast agents. They also exhibit small particle size of 5 nm, excellent colloidal stability and low cellular toxicity for concentrations up to 750 µg mL(-1). In addition, with the conjugation of folic acid, the nanoparticles were successfully used for tumor-targeted FL/MR dual-modal imaging in vitro and in vivo.

Irreversible site-specific hydrazinolysis of proteins by use of sortase.

Sortase-mediated hydrazinolysis of proteins with hydrazine or its derivatives was developed for the production of recombinant protein hydrazides. This process provides an alternative approach for protein semisynthesis through the use of recombinant protein hydrazides as thioester surrogates. It also provides an alternative method for C-terminal modification of proteins with functional units as well as for the preparation of C-to-C fusion proteins.