Rapid Volumetric Optoacoustic Tracking of Individual Microparticles in Vivo Enabled by a NIR-Absorbing Gold-Carbon Shell

Daniil Nozdriukhin, Sandeep Kumar Kalva, Weiye Li, Alexey Yashchenok, Dmitry Gorin, Daniel Razansky, Xosé Luís Deán-Ben

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

Rapid volumetric in vivo visualization of circulating microparticles can facilitate new biomedical applications, such as blood flow characterization or targeted drug delivery. However, existing imaging modalities generally lack the sensitivity to detect the weak signals generated by individual micrometer-sized particles distributed across millimeter- to centimeter-scale depths in living mammalian tissues. Also, the temporal resolution is typically insufficient to track the particles in an entire three-dimensional region. Herein, we introduce a new type of monodisperse (4 μm) silica-core microparticle coated with a shell formed by a multilayered structure of carbon nanotubes (CNT) and gold nanoparticles (AuNP) to provide strong optoacoustic (OA) absorption-based contrast. We capitalize on the unique advantages of a state-of-the-art high-frame-rate OA tomography system to visualize and track the motion of these core-shell particles individually and volumetrically as they flow throughout the mouse brain vasculature. The feasibility of localizing individual solid particles smaller than red blood cells opens new opportunities for mapping the blood flow velocity, enhancing the resolution and visibility of OA images, and developing new biosensing assays.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)48423-48432
Number of pages10
JournalACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
Volume13
Issue number41
DOIs
StatePublished - 20 Oct 2021
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • brain imaging
  • carbon nanotubes
  • core-shell microparticles
  • gold nanoparticles
  • optoacoustic tomography

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