Name: synthesis of core-shell lanthanide-doped upconversion nanocrystals for cellular applications
Uploaded: 2017-11-10T13:00:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Synthesis of Core-shell Lanthanide-doped Upconversion Nanocrystals for Cellular Applications at JoVE.com

This work was partially supported by NTU-AIT-MUV NAM/16001, RG110/16 (S), (RG 11/13) and (RG 35/15) awarded in Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (No. 51628201).

Caution: Please consult all relevant material safety data sheets (MSDS) before use. Please use all appropriate safety practices when performing the synthesis of UCNs at a high temperature (~290 &#176;C), including the use of engineering controls (fume hood) and personal protective equipment (e.g., safety goggles, gloves, lab coat, full length pants, and closed-toe shoes).
1. Synthesis of NaYF4:Yb/Tm/Nd(30/0.5/1%)@NaYF4:Nd(20%) core-shell nanocrystals
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L., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Biomimetic+surface+engineering+of+lanthanide-doped+upconversion+nanoparticles+as+versatile+bioprobes.">Biomimetic surface engineering of lanthanide-doped upconversion nanoparticles as versatile bioprobes.</a> Angew Chem Int Ed. 51 (25), 6121-6125 (2012).</li><li>Wang, J., Ming, T., Jin, Z., Wang, J., Sun, L. D., Yan, C. H. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Photon+energy+upconversion+through+thermal+radiation+with+the+power+efficiency+reaching+16%.">Photon energy upconversion through thermal radiation with the power efficiency reaching 16%.</a> Nat Commun. 5, 5669-5678 (2014).</li><li>Zou, W., Visser, C., Maduro, J. A., Pshenichnikov, M. S., Hummelen, J. 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This article has presented a method for the synthesis of core-shell lanthanide-doped upconversion nanocrystals (UCNs) and their surface modification with functional moieties for cellular applications. This novel nanomaterial possesses outstanding optical properties, which can emit UV and visible light upon NIR light excitation through a multi-photon upconversion process. In this protocol, the core-shell UCNs nanostructures (NaYF4:Yb/Tm/Nd (30/0.5/1%)@NaYF4:Nd (20%)) are prepared by a high-temperatur...

In recent years, lanthanide-doped upconversion nanocrystals (UCNs) have been widely used as an alternative to conventional organic dyes and quantum dots in biomedical applications, which are mainly based on their outstanding chemical and optical properties, including great biocompatibility, high resistance to photobleaching, and narrow-bandwidth emission1,2,3. More importantly, they can serve as a promising nanotransducer with excellent tissue penetration depth in vivo to convert near-infrared (NIR) excitation into a broad range of emissions from the UV, visible, and the NIR regions through a multi-photon upconversion process4,5. These unique properties make lanthanide-doped UCNs serve as a particularly promising vector for biological sensing, biomedical imaging, and diseases theranostics6,7,8.
The general components of UCNs are mainly based on the doped lanthanide ions in the insulating host matrix containing a sensitizer (e.g., Yb3+, Nd3+) and an activator (e.g., Tm3+, Er3+, Ho3+) within the crystal homogeneously9. The different optical emission from the nanocrystals is attributed to the localized electronic transition within the 4f orbitals of the lanthanide dopants due to their ladder-like arranged energy level10. Therefore, it is critical to precisely control the size and morphology of synthesized UCNs with multicomponent lanthanide dopants. By right, some promising methods have been well established for the preparation of lanthanide-doped UCNs, including thermal decomposition, high-temperature co-precipitation, hydrothermal synthesis, sol-gel processing, etc.11,12,13 Among these approaches, the high-temperature co-precipitation method is one of the most popular and convenient strategies for UCNs synthesis, which can be strictly controlled to prepare desired high-quality nanocrystals with uniform shape and size distribution in a relatively short reaction time and low-cost14. However, most nanostructures synthesized by this method are mainly capped with hydrophobic ligands such as oleic acid and oleylamine, which generally hinder their further bioapplication due to the limited of hydrophobic ligand solubility in aqueous solution15. Therefore, it is necessary to perform suitable surface modification techniques to prepare biocompatible UCNs in biological applications in vitro and in vivo.
Herein, we present the detailed experimental procedure for the synthesis of core-shell UCNs nanostructures through the high-temperature co-precipitation method and a feasible modification technique to functionalize biocompatible polymer on UCNs surface for further cellular applications. This UCNs nanoplatform incorporates three lanthanide ions (Yb3+, Nd3+, and Tm3+) into the nanocrystals to acquire strong blue emission (~480 nm) upon NIR light excitation at 808 nm, which has greater penetration depth in living tissue. It is well known that Nd3+-doped UCNs display minimized water absorption and overheating effects at this spectral window (808 nm) as compared to conventional UCNs upon 980 nm irradiation16,17,18. Moreover, to utilize the UCNs in biological systems, the hydrophobic ligands (oleic acid) on the surface of UCNs are firstly removed by sonication in acid solution19. Then the ligand-free UCNs are further modified with a biocompatible polymer (polyacrylic acid, PAA) to acquire great solubility in aqueous solutions20. Furthermore, as a proof-of-concept in cellular applications, the hydrophilic UCNs are further functionalized with molecular ligands (dibenzyl cyclooctyne, DBCO) for specific localization on the N3-tagged cell membrane. Upon NIR light (808 nm) irradiation, the upconverted blue emission at 480 nm can effectively activate a light-gated channel protein, channelrhodopsins-2 (ChR2), on cell the surface and thus facilitate cation (e.g., Ca2+ ion) influx across the membrane of living cells.
This video protocol provides a feasible methodology for lanthanide-doped UCNs synthesis, biocompatible surface modification, and UCNs bioapplication in living cells. Any differences in the synthesis techniques and chemical reagents used in nanocrystal growth will influence the size distribution, morphology, and upconversion luminescence (UCL) spectra of final UCNs nanostructures used in cell experiments. This detailed video protocol is prepared to help new researchers in this field to improve the reproducibility of UCNs with the high-temperature co-precipitation method and avoid the most common mistakes in UCNs biocompatible surface modification for further cellular applications.

<table>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>1-Octadecene</td>
			<td>Sigma Aldrich</td>
			<td>O806</td>
			<td>Technical grade</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>oleic acid</td>
			<td>Sigma Aldrich</td>
			<td>364525</td>
			<td>Technical grade</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Methanol</td>
			<td>Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>A412</td>
			<td>Technical grade</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Ethanol</td>
			<td>Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>A405</td>
			<td>Technical grade</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Acetone</td>
			<td>Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>A18</td>
			<td>Technical grade</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Hexane</td>
			<td>Sigma Aldrich</td>
			<td>H292</td>
			<td>Technical grade</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Thulium (III) acetate hydrate (Tm(CH3CO2)3)</td>
			<td>Sigma Aldrich</td>
			<td>367702</td>
			<td>99.9% trace metals basis</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Neodymium (III) acetate hydrate (Nd(CH3CO2)3)</td>
			<td>Sigma Aldrich</td>
			<td>325805</td>
			<td>99.9% trace metals basis</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Ytterbium (III) acetate hydrate (Yb(CH3CO2)3)</td>
			<td>Sigma Aldrich</td>
			<td>326011</td>
			<td>99.9% trace metals basis</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Yttrium(III) acetate hydrate (Y(CH3CO2)3)</td>
			<td>Sigma Aldrich</td>
			<td>326046</td>
			<td>99.9% trace metals basis</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Sodium hydroxide (NaOH)</td>
			<td>Sigma Aldrich</td>
			<td>S5881</td>
			<td>reagent grade</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Ammonium fluoride (NH4F)</td>
			<td>Sigma Aldrich</td>
			<td>338869</td>
			<td>ACS reagent</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Hydrogen chloride (HCl)</td>
			<td>Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>A144</td>
			<td>reagent grade</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>polyacrylic acid (PAA)</td>
			<td>Sigma Aldrich</td>
			<td>323667</td>
			<td>average Mw 1800</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>1-Hydroxybenzotriazole hydrate (HOBT)</td>
			<td>Sigma Aldrich</td>
			<td>54802</td>
			<td>ACS reagent</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)carbodiimide hydrochloride (EDC)</td>
			<td>Sigma Aldrich</td>
			<td>E7750</td>
			<td>commercial grade</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Dibenzocyclooctyne-amine (DBCO-NH2)</td>
			<td>Sigma Aldrich</td>
			<td>761540</td>
			<td>ACS reagent</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>N,N-Diisopropylethylamine (DIPEA)</td>
			<td>Sigma Aldrich</td>
			<td>D125806</td>
			<td>ACS reagent</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO)</td>
			<td>Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>BP231</td>
			<td>Technical grade</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>HEK293 cell line</td>
			<td>ATCC</td>
			<td>CRL-1573</td>
			<td>human embryonic kidney</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS)</td>
			<td>Sigma Aldrich</td>
			<td>F1051</td>
			<td>ACS reagent</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Penicillin-Streptomycin</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher</td>
			<td>15140122</td>
			<td>10,000 U/mL</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>plasmid (pCAGGS-ChR2-Venus)</td>
			<td>Addgene</td>
			<td>15753</td>
			<td>Plasmid sent as bacteria in agar stab</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Dulbecco&#39;s Modified Eagle Medium (DMEM)</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher</td>
			<td>11965092</td>
			<td>High glucose</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>opti-Modified Eagle Medium (MEM)</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher</td>
			<td>51985034</td>
			<td>Reduced Serum Media</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Lipofectamine 3000 Transfection Reagent</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher</td>
			<td>L3000015</td>
			<td>Lipid-Based Transfection</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>N-Azidoacetylmannosamine, Acetylated (Ac4ManNAz)</td>
			<td>Sigma Aldrich</td>
			<td>A7605</td>
			<td>ACS reagent</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Trypsin-EDTA (0.25%)</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher</td>
			<td>25200056</td>
			<td>Phenol red</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Rhod-3 AM Calcium Imaging Kit</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher</td>
			<td>R10145</td>
			<td>Fluorescence dye</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>5-carboxytetramethylrhodamine-azide (Rhod-N3)</td>
			<td>Sigma Aldrich</td>
			<td>760757</td>
			<td>Azide-fluor 545</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Confical dish</td>
			<td>ibidi GmbH</td>
			<td>81158</td>
			<td>Glass Bottom, 35 mm</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>50 ml conical centrifuge tubes</td>
			<td>Greiner Bio-One</td>
			<td>227261</td>
			<td>Polypropylene</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>15 ml conical centrifuge tubes</td>
			<td>Greiner Bio-One</td>
			<td>188271</td>
			<td>Polypropylene</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>1.5 ml conical microcentrifuge tubes</td>
			<td>Greiner Bio-One</td>
			<td>616201</td>
			<td>Polypropylene</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Phenylmethyl silicone oil</td>
			<td>Clearco Products</td>
			<td>63148-52-7</td>
			<td>Less than 320 degrees Celsius</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Glass thermometer</td>
			<td>GH Zeal</td>
			<td>L0111/10</td>
			<td>From -10 to 360 degrees Celsius</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>12-well plate</td>
			<td>Sigma Aldrich</td>
			<td>Z707775</td>
			<td>Polystyrene</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

synthesis of core-shell lanthanide-doped upconversion nanocrystals for cellular applications

Lanthanide-doped upconversion nanocrystals (UCNs) have attracted much attention in recent years based on their promising and controllable optical properties, which allow for the absorption of near-infrared (NIR) light and can subsequently convert it into multiplexed emissions that span over a broad range of regions from the UV to the visible to the NIR. This article presents detailed experimental procedures for high-temperature co-precipitation synthesis of core-shell UCNs that incorporate different lanthanide ions into nanocrystals for efficiently converting deep-tissue penetrable NIR excitation (808 nm) into a strong blue emission at 480 nm. By controlling the surface modification with biocompatible polymer (polyacrylic acid, PAA), the as-prepared UCNs acquires great solubility in buffer solutions. The hydrophilic nanocrystals are further functionalized with specific ligands (dibenzyl cyclooctyne, DBCO) for localization on the cell membrane. Upon NIR light (808 nm) irradiation, the upconverted blue emission can effectively activate the light-gated channel protein on the cell membrane and specifically regulate the cation (e.g., Ca2+) influx in the cytoplasm. This protocol provides a feasible methodology for the synthesis of core-shell lanthanide-doped UCNs and subsequent biocompatible surface modification for further cellular applications.

The schematic synthesis process of core-shell lanthanide-doped UCNs are shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2. The transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) images of core and core-shell UCNs nanostructures were collected respectively (Figure 1). The ligand-free UCNs are prepared by removing the hydrophobic oleic acid on the surface of UCNs in acid s...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Synthesis of Core-shell Lanthanide-doped Upconversion Nanocrystals for Cellular Applications at JoVE.com

Synthesis of Core-shell Lanthanide-doped Upconversion Nanocrystals for Cellular Applications

A protocol is presented for the synthesis of core-shell lanthanide-doped upconversion nanocrystals (UCNs) and their cellular applications for channel protein regulation upon near-infrared (NIR) light illumination.

Lanthanide-doped upconversion nanocrystals (UCNs) have attracted much attention in recent years based on their promising and controllable optical ...

Research

JoVE Journal

Chemistry

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