Potential usage for in vivo lectin screening in live animals utilizing cell surface mimetic glyco-nanoparticles,...

Utilizing glycosylated derivatives as a tag, we are able to explore novel counter-receptor of endogenous lectins or lectin-like molecules in vivo. We have established the standardized methodology including preparation of glycosylated derivatives and construction of a platform for tracing the molecules in vivo at first. Combined use of an aminooxy-terminated thiol derivative and a phosphorylcholine (PC) derivative provides quantum dots (QDs) with novel functions for the chemical ligation of ketone-functionalized compounds and the prevention of nonspecific protein adsorption concurrently. In order to track the derivatives in vivo, near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence imaging of QDs displaying various simple sugars (glyco-PC-QDs) after administration into the tail vein of the mouse can be performed. It has revealed that distinct long-term delocalization over 2 h can be observed depending on the species of glycans ligated to PC-QDs at least in the liver. Until today we have performed live animal imaging utilizing various kinds of sialyl glyco-PC-QDs. They are still retained stably in whole body after 2 h while they showed significantly different in vivo dynamics in the tissue distribution, suggesting that structure/sequence of the neighboring sugar residues in the individual sialyl oligosaccharides might influence the final organ-specific distribution, which should be equivalent to the distribution of sialic acid-recognizing lectins. Here we describe a standardized protocol using ligand-displayed PC-QDs for live cell/animal imaging by versatile NIR fluorescence photometry without influence of size-dependent accumulation/excretion pathway for nanoparticles (e.g., viruses)>10 nm in hydrodynamic diameter by the liver.