Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 15, 2025
13:51
Synthesis of Core-shell Lanthanide-doped Upconversion Nanocrystals for Cellular Applications
Published on: November 10, 2017
15.4K
Upconversion Nanoparticles as Imaging Agents for Dental Caries
Julia C Bulmahn1,2,3, Andrey N Kuzmin3, Carol Parker4
1Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics, Department of Chemistry, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, New York 14260, United States.
Chemical & Biomedical Imaging
|September 29, 2023
Summary
New upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) show promise for detecting dental caries. These nanoparticles can be targeted to specific sites, enabling sensitive, noninvasive imaging of demineralized enamel and oral biofilm formation.
Area of Science:
- Biomedical Engineering
- Nanotechnology
- Dental Research
Background:
- Dental caries is the most common global disease, yet current detection methods lack sensitivity and are prone to subjective interpretation.
- There is a critical need for advanced, noninvasive imaging techniques for accurate early detection of dental caries.
- Upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) offer unique optical properties for potential biomedical imaging applications.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and evaluate novel upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) for sensitive, noninvasive imaging of dental caries.
- To functionalize UCNPs with targeting ligands for enhanced binding to demineralized enamel and oral biofilms.
- To assess the efficacy of targeted UCNPs in detecting artificial carious lesions and bacterial presence.
Main Methods:
- Synthesized 30 nm core@shell NaYF4; Yb20%, Er2%@NaYF4 upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs).
- Modified UCNPs with poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) or poly-d-lysine (PDL) and conjugated targeting peptides for hydroxyapatite (HA) or *Streptococcus mutans*.
- Evaluated UCNP binding affinity to HA and *S. mutans* biofilms using upconversion fluorescence and elemental analysis (ICP-OES).
Main Results:
- Targeted UCNPs demonstrated statistically significant binding to hydroxyapatite compared to non-targeted UCNPs (p < 0.001).
- HA-targeted UCNPs successfully visualized artificial enamel defects (0.5-1.0 mm) via green upconversion emission.
- Targeted UCNPs showed significantly higher binding to *S. mutans* biofilms than non-targeted UCNPs (p = 0.0125).
Conclusions:
- Functionalized upconversion nanoparticles show high specificity and sensitivity for detecting demineralized enamel and oral biofilms.
- These targeted UCNPs hold significant potential for noninvasive imaging-based diagnosis of dental caries.
- The developed UCNP system offers a promising advancement over current subjective and less sensitive dental caries detection methods.
