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Updated: May 5, 2026
Preparation and Photoacoustic Analysis of Cellular Vehicles Containing Gold Nanorods
Published on: May 2, 2016
In vivo imaging of T cells loaded with gold nanoparticles: a pilot study
Hui Li1, Laura Diaz, Daniel Lee
1Institute of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Shanghai Sixth People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China, lihui1993@gmail.com.
Purpose:
Malignant tumours develop strategies to avoid immune recognition and elimination by T cells, even in individuals with a fully functioning immune system. To explore the treatment approach of adoptive immunotherapy, we exploited T cells loaded with radiolabelled gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) to track T cells in vivo.
Materials And Methods:
Surface-modified AuNPs were radiolabelled with (111)In or (64)Cu. They were then transferred into T cells via electroporation. To evaluate the effectiveness of this process, T cells loaded with (111)In-radiolabelled AuNPs were injected directly into the right lung of nude mice for in vivo imaging by micro-SPECT/CT. T cells loaded with (64)Cu-radiolabelled AuNPs were then injected into the tail vein of nude mice and imaged by micro-PET/CT.
Results:
High uptake signals were observed in the right lung following the direct injection of T cells containing (111)In-labelled AuNPs. Imaging showed a marked difference in the dynamic biodistribution of T cells containing (64)Cu-labelled AuNPs when compared with (64)Cu-labelled AuNPs alone.
Conclusions:
This study demonstrated the feasibility of the in vivo imaging of T cells loaded with radiolabelled AuNPs.
