A NANOPLATFORM BASED ON SILICA CORE-SHELL NANOPARTICLES AND BODIPY COPPER SENSOR FOR MONITORING INTRACELLULAR DYNAMICS OF COPPER TRAFFICKING

Spatio-temporal changes in intracellular copper have known to affect the tiny borderline between physiological and pathological aspects [1]. We present here a nanoparticle-based strategy to detect intracellular copper distribution and to follow its dynamic changes upon several cell perturbation. A fluorescent probe consisting of porous silica nanoparticles dye-doped in the core with coumarin molecules and functionalized on the outer shell with a bodipy-containing copper chemosensor, was employed as highly efficient transduction nanoplatform for intracellular copper detection due both to energy transfer process and to a high affinity and specificity to bind monovalent copper [2]. The systematic investigation of fluorescence intensity as well as co-localization with respect to several sub-cellular districts was carried out on neuroblastoma cells as function of several parameters, including the cellular state (differentiated or not), buffer, pH, peptides addition, copper deprivation/supplementation. Results demonstrate the enhanced imaging capability of the nanoparticle-based sensor compared with the traditional free chemosensor, as well as highlight the potential use of the new system as multifunctional nanoplatform for both imaging and drug delivery applications [3]. [1] Neurodegeneration: metallostasis and proteostasis D. Milardi and E. Rizzarelli (Ed). RSC, 2011. [2] E. Rampazzo et al. Chem. Eur. J. 2011, 17, 13429. [3] E. Rampazzo et al. Nanoscale, 2012, 4, 824.