Journal: Nature Communications
Article Title: Supramolecular aptamer nano-constructs for receptor-mediated targeting and light-triggered release of chemotherapeutics into cancer cells
doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-02929-2
Figure Lengend Snippet: Confocal microscopy and flow cytometry analysis of the HyApNc-mediated doxorubicin uptake. a – c Confocal image of intracellular distribution of DxR released (yellow signal) from the DxR -loaded HyApNc nanoconstructs in the H1838 cells incubated with free DxR ( a : nuclei staining with Hoechst 33342; blue; c1, b : DxR staining; yellow; c2, c : overlay; c1 + c2). d – f Cells incubated with HyApNc- DxR not exposed to UV irradiation ( d : Hoechst 33342; blue; c1, e : DxR staining; yellow; c2, f : overlay; c1 + c2). g – i Cells incubated with HyApNc- DxR exposed to UV light, λ = 365 nm, 350 mW cm −2 ( g : Hoechst 33342; blue; c1, h : DxR staining; yellow; c2, i : overlay; c1 + c2). j – l Cells treated with HyApNc w/oAz - DxR without UV irradiation ( j : Hoechst 33342; blue; c1, k : DxR staining; yellow; c2, l : overlay; c1 + c2). m – o Cells treated with HyApNc w/oAz - DxR exposed to UV light ( λ = 365 nm, 350 mW cm −2 ) ( m : Hoechst 33342; blue; c1, n : DxR staining; yellow; c2, o : overlay; c1 + c2). Blue (c1) and yellow (c2) signals show the fluorescence of Hoechst 33342 and DxR staining, respectively. The overlay (c1 + c2) shows colocalization of Hoechst 33342 and DxR . An increase in nuclear accumulation of DxR upon light triggering was observed only for the photoactivated nanoconstruct. Scale bar: a – o 50 µm. p Flow cytometry histogram showing quantitative comparison of DxR accumulation in H1838 cells after incubation with free DxR (orange shadow), mutant non-targeted nanoconstructs HyApNc.mut- DxR (magenta solid), targeted nanoconstructs HyApNc- DxR without UV (purple solid), or with UV irradiation (red dotted). q Flow cytometry histogram showing DxR accumulation in H1838 cells after incubation with HyApNc w/oAz - DxR without UV (blue solid) or with UV irradiation (red dotted) at 37 °C for 2 h. The concentration of DxR either in free form or its equivalent in complex form in the cell culture was fixed at 8 µM. Untreated cells are shown in shadow (gray). The numbers in bracket of the legends are the geometric mean of the corresponding peaks
Article Snippet: Finally, the 96-well plate was mounted with a multi-well plate holder and the confocal imaging of the fixed cells was performed by using a NikonTi-E Eclipse inverted confocal laser-scanning microscope equipped with a 60× Plan Apo VC Oil-immersion DIC N2 objective, a Nikon C2 plus confocal laser scan head and a pinhole of 1.2 airy unit (30 μm).
Techniques: Confocal Microscopy, Flow Cytometry, Incubation, Staining, Irradiation, Fluorescence, Comparison, Mutagenesis, Concentration Assay, Cell Culture