FGF2-labeled semiconductor nanocrystals as luminescent biolabels for imaging neuroblastoma cells

In this paper, we report the synthesis of FGF-2 peptide labeled luminescent nanocrystals as optical probes for targeted imaging of live neuroblastoma cells. Confocal laser scanning microscopy technique was used to confirm the receptor-mediated uptake of the bioconjugates into the live neuroblastoma cells and study the dynamic profile of the bioconjugates within a single cell. It was found that the bioconjugates were self-assembled near the nuclear periphery after they entered the cellular cytoplasm. In addition to confocal imaging, the cytotoxicity of bioconjugates was investigated using colorimetric cell viability (MTS) assay. The MTS study reveals that the bioconjugate formulation has very low toxicity. These results demonstrate that the luminescent nanocrystal bioconjugates can serve as biocompatible targeted probes for multiplex cell labeling and molecule tracking.