Mucin-16 targeted mesoporous nano-system for evaluation of cervical cancer via dual-modal computed tomography and ultrasonography

Mesoporous silica-coated bismuth nanoparticles (NPs) are dual-modal contrast agents that enable detection and quantification of cervical cancers at early stages using computed tomography (CT) and ultrasonography (US). Herein, the mesoporous silica-coated bismuth NPs are synthesized using a sol–gel method and conjugated with mucin-16 aptamer (MSBi@MUC16 NPs). In vitro and in vivo CT and US modalities are used to investigate the properties of these NPs in cellular and animal models. The US/CT imaging indicated that the accumulation of aptamer-armed NPs in HeLa cells was higher than in CHO cells. The targeted NPs accumulated in the overexpressing cells were considerably higher than the non-targeted NPs in both imaging modalities. In animal models, the targeted NPs effectively circulate in the blood and undergo tumor-accumulation in the HeLa tumor-bearing animal model. The concentrations of bismuth NPs correlated linearly with both CT numbers and the mean pixel intensity (MPI) values in US images. Furthermore, the measurements from inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) closely agreed with the CT number values obtained from major organs. Based on these data, the MSBi@MUC16 NPs are proposed as high-performance hybrid contrast agents for US/CT dual-modal imaging of cervical cancer.