Lanthanide-based nanomaterials have promising applications including high throughput drug screening, bio-analytical sensing, and biomedical imaging. Among many lanthanide-based nanomaterials, europium metal ions are of particular interest in biological assays due to their long luminescent lifetimes, nearly monochromatic emission at 614 nm, minimal photobleaching and large Stokes shifts. Compared to well-known lanthanide-doped matrices such as yttrium fluoride and lanthanum fluoride, calcium fluoride matrix has shown to have promise as an imaging agent due to their greater luminescent efficiency and high biocompatibility. This work is focused on the synthesis and surface functionalization of a europium-based novel nanomaterial platform for targeting human whole cells expressing human melanocortin receptors (hMCR-4). Here, we present our optimized microwave-based synthetic method to prepare europium-doped calcium fluoride nanoparticles with a controlled size distribution. The optimized parameters include pH, reaction time, and the reaction temperature. The size distribution of the nanoparticles was controlled by adjusting the initial reactant ratios. The nanoparticles were characterized by using powder X-ray diffraction, dynamic light scattering, infra-red and luminescent spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. The melanocortin stimulating hormone (MSH-4) peptide was synthesized using the standard solid phase peptide synthesis method. The europium-based nanoparticles were functionalized with the MSH-4 peptide which is an agonist for hMCR-4. The promise of using the peptide functionalized nanoparticles for optical imaging of human cells will be discussed.

Melanocortin stimulating hormone-4 peptide-functionalized europium-doped calcium fluoride nanoparticles for potential biomedical imaging

ACS Fall 2021

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