Preparation Of Glypician-3Molecular Probe And In Vitro MR Imaging Targeting HepG2Cell

Objective: To prepare glypican-3(GPC3) MR molecular probestargeting hepatocellular carcinoma and to evaluate the specificity to targetHepG2cell and the feasibility of MR imaging after incubated with HepG2cell in vitro.Methods: PLGA nanoparticles were prepared by a double emulsionsolvent evaporation method, and the surfaces of PLGA nanoparticles wereconnected with anti-GPC3mono-antibody and paramagnetic substance Gd3+to prepare GPC3-targeting hepatocellular carcinoma MR molecular probes.The physical properties were observed by fluorescence microscope, electronmicroscope, Malvern particle size analyzer, ICP-AES and1.5T MR scanner,the specificity to target HepG2cell was observed by laser con-focalmicroscopy, and the signal characteristics after co-incubated were analyzedby1.5T MR scanner. The one-way analysis of variance was applied betweenall groups, and LSD-t test was applied between the different two groups. Adifference was considered to be statistically significant at P<0.05.Results: The GPC3-targeting hepatocellular carcinoma MR molecularprobes were successfully prepared. The nanoparticles had a spherical shape,size of495±17.5nm, uniform size distribution, good dispersibility, noobvious aggregation, and could significantly increase the T1signal. Usingthe ICP-AES measurement,1mol PLGA carried about12mol Gd3+, and asthe Gd3+concentration increased, the T1signal increased. The prepared MR molecular probes could specifically target HepG2cell, and could increasethe T1signal. The SNR values of HepG2cells incubated with differentnanopaticles in vitro underwent MR scanner were calculated, and the SNRvalue of the target group was3.45±0.21, the non-target group was1.43±0.07,the control group was1.12±0.03, the SNR value of target group wasobviously higher than that of the non-target group and the control group(LSD-t test, P <0.05), and there was no significant difference between thenon-target group and the control group (P>0.05).Conclusion: PLGA nanoparticles, anti-GPC3mono-antibody andparamagnetic material Gd3+could be used to successfully prepareGPC3-targeting hepatocellular carcinoma MR molecular probes. Theprepared MR molecular probes could specifically target HepG2cells in vitro,and could image after co-incubated with HepG2cells under1.5T MRscanner. These results suggest the potential of the MR molecular probes forproviding a noninvasive imaging method to early detect hepatocellularcarcinoma in vivo.