Recognition of MCF-7 human breast carcinoma cells using silica-encapsulated fluorescent nanoparticles modified with aminophenylboronic acid

A method is reported for recognizing MCF-7 human breast carcinoma cells based on silica-encapsulated nanoparticles modified with aminophenylboronic acid which can recognize sialic acid on cell surfaces. Gold@rhodamine B nanoparticles were coated with aminophenylboronic acid and used to capture MCF-7 cells. It is found that the presence of gold NPs was favorable to prepare nanoparticles easily and that they were extraordinarily biocompatible with MCF-7 cells. The experimental results confirmed that the nanoparticles can be used to target breast carcinoma cells using HS 578Bst normal breast cells as the negative control. The MCF-7 cells were imaged by laser scanning microscopy and showed strong red fluorescence in dark field. An MTT test revealed an 82 % viability of cells when 50 mg · mL−1 fluorescent probe was used in the incubation experiments. The results exhibited that the NPs are innocuous and stable. In our perception, the method has a larege potential for early diagnosis of breast cancer due to high affinity between nanoparticles and the breast carcinoma cells.