Subcellular nanoparticle trafficking investigated with label-free, live cell imaging

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Cell Biology
• Nanotechnology

Background:

• Nanoparticle drug delivery systems offer potential for precision medicine.
• Understanding nanoparticle uptake and intracellular trafficking remains a challenge.
• Current technological limitations hinder comprehensive analysis of nanoparticle-cell interactions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a robust imaging workflow for studying long-term nanoparticle delivery dynamics in live cells.
• To quantitatively characterize nanoparticle uptake and cargo delivery kinetics.
• To overcome limitations in studying nanoparticle-cell interactions.

Main Methods:

• Integration of holography and tomography for label-free live-cell imaging.
• Combination with intermittent fluorescence microscopy for extended observation (up to 30 hours).
• Quantitative characterization of nanoformulation uptake using fluorescently tagged lipid- and polymer-based nanoparticles.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated a novel imaging workflow for long-term live-cell nanoparticle tracking.
• Enabled label-free assessment of cellular uptake and delivery kinetics.
• Quantified uptake of various nanoformulations without cell or organelle markers.

Conclusions:

• Dynamic fluorescent holotomography is a powerful method for investigating nanoparticle uptake and cargo delivery.
• Multimodal, label-free, live imaging techniques are expanding the study of nanomedicine.
• This approach advances the understanding of nanoparticle-cell interactions for drug delivery applications.