Glaucoma is an incurable disease and is a leading cause of blindness that is projected to affect 76 million people by 2020. The main cause of glaucoma is the degradation of the retinal ganglion cell layer within the eye and unlike other peripheral nerve cells, RGCs are part of the central nervous system and cannot be replaced. Consequently, there is a great need for therapeutic strategies as well as technologies that would enable us to detect the early stages of damaged RGCs before permanent blindness occurs. Currently, OCT is a widely used non-invasive technology used to diagnose and monitor diseases such as glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration (AMD), and diabetic retinopathy. While OCT is able to visualize individual retinal layers at micron scale resolution, it is a poor molecular and cellular imaging technique. While strong absorbing organic dyes enhance OCT contrast there are issues with contrast delivery, visualization in deep tissue, and difficulty tuning them near-infrared region (NIR). Recently, gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) were shown to be potential alternatives to dyes and drug carriers in the eye. It has been demonstrated that enhanced contrast occurs when the central operating wavelength of the OCT matches the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) band of the AuNPs.  While this is a great step in the right direction, there is a great need for AuNPs that can bind to specific cells to visualize layers of cells in the eye using OCT. Here we describe the synthesis of hybrid lipid-coated gold nanoparticles with lipids-conjugated to Cholera Toxin B subunit that is known to bind to the GM-1 gangliosides receptors in RGCs. We will present UV-Vis spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering, and flourescence spectroscopy data to show that the Cholera Toxin B subunit is conjugated to membrane-caped AuNPs. We will also present data evaluating the stability of the cholera toxin-conjugated AuNPs to evaluate the effect of physiological conditions on the stability of the nanomaterials that could diminish or enhance contrast. These nanoparticle platforms when combined with OCT can be used in an <i>in vivo</i> diagnostic for glaucoma to detect early changes in layers of RGCs of patients.<br/>

Design of cholera toxin B-conjugated gold nanoparticles to target retinal ganglion cells in the eye

2019 Spring National Meeting

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.