Multimodal imaging Gd-nanoparticles functionalized with Pittsburgh compound B or a nanobody for amyloid plaques targeting.

AIM: Gadolinium-based nanoparticles were functionalized with either the Pittsburgh compound B or a nanobody (B10AP) in order to create multimodal tools for an early diagnosis of amyloidoses.

MATERIALS & METHODS: The ability of the functionalized nanoparticles to target amyloid fibrils made of β-amyloid peptide, amylin or Val30Met-mutated transthyretin formed in vitro or from pathological tissues was investigated by a range of spectroscopic and biophysics techniques including fluorescence microscopy.

RESULTS: Nanoparticles functionalized by both probes efficiently interacted with the three types of amyloid fibrils, with KD values in 10 micromolar and 10 nanomolar range for, respectively, Pittsburgh compound B and B10AP nanoparticles. Moreover, they allowed the detection of amyloid deposits on pathological tissues.

CONCLUSION: Such functionalized nanoparticles could represent promising flexible and multimodal imaging tools for the early diagnostic of amyloid diseases, in other words, Alzheimer's disease, Type 2 diabetes mellitus and the familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy.