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Frontiers of Engineering Reports on Leading-Edge Engineering from the 2008 Symposium (2009) / Chapter Skim
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Traceable Drug Delivery: Lighting the Way with Qdots--Xiaohu Gao
Pages 33-40

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From page 33...
... In comparison with conventional organic dyes and fluorescent proteins, Qdots have distinctive characteristics, such as size-tunable light emission, improved signal brightness, resistance against photobleaching, and simultaneous excitation of multiple fluorescent colors. Recent advances in nanoparticle-surface chemistry have led to the development of polymer-encapsulated probes that are highly fluorescent and stable under complex biological conditions (Dubertret et al., 2002; Gao et al., 2004; Wu et al., 2003)
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From page 34...
... Following drug molecules or drug carriers noninvasively in real time in live organisms requires specialized imaging techniques. Compared with traditional imaging modalities, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
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From page 35...
... , which is emerging as one of the most powerful technologies for sequence-specific suppression of genes, has potential applications ranging from functional gene analysis to therapeutics. Because of the relatively low immunogenic and oncologic effects of RNAi, the development of nonviral delivery methods in vitro and in organisms is generating considerable interest.
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From page 36...
... Top panels are fluorescence images, and bottom panels are the corresponding brightfield images. (Figure can be viewed in color at www.nae.edu/frontiers.)
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From page 37...
... Another primary challenge of drug delivery is maintaining a useful concentration of the drug in the targeted tissue while preventing toxicity. Achieving this therapeutic window has not been studied with Qdots thus far, but, ideally, engineered Qdots should be able to stabilize therapeutic compounds, increase their plasma-circulation time while reducing the concentration of free drug to minimize unwanted side effects, and release the drug with a well-controlled profile.
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From page 38...
... Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 102(2)
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From page 39...
... 1999. Gene delivery: a single nuclear localization signal peptide is sufficient to carry DNA to the cell nucleus.
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Key Terms

  • drug delivery
  • quantum dots
  • membrane proteins
  • drug carriers
  • quantum dot

  • integral membrane
  • fluorescence imaging
  • quantum yield
  • drug candidates
  • sirna molecules

  • using qdots
  • vivo imaging
  • living cells
  • nature biotechnology
  • surface properties

  • recent advances
  • dot bioconjugates
  • therapeutic compounds
  • drug discovery
  • multicolor quantum

  • conductor quantum
  • free drug
  • drug screening
  • following drug
  • delivery traceable

  • drug molecules
  • engineering drug
  • semiconductor quantum
  • testing drug
  • phospholipid micelles


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