Single-Chain Variable Fragment Bearing Silica Nanoparticle Evaluation in HER2+ Over Expressing Tumor Tissues Using Optical Super-Resolution Microscopy

Active targeting of therapeutics or imaging probes to cancer cells is the primary pharmacological strategy in cancer therapy and diagnostics. Recent years have witnessed a boom in nanotechnologies, such as antibody-functionalized nanoparticles, in cancer theranostics which provide unique advantages over standard treatments. However, nanomedicine has is currently suffering from a lack of characterization and quantitative methods that provide understanding of the complex interactions in tumor tissues. The challenge in making quantitative methods for large samples usually lies in cost and availability of equipment. However, optical microscopy is a well-established and relatively low-cost alternative which is equipped, due to various super-resolution techniques, with the capability to study objects smaller than 100 nm. Here we demonstrate the use of coordinate base colocalization and nearest neighbor distance analysis with optical super-resolution microscopy to determine the quality of nanomedicine targeting using HER2 overexpressing tumor tissues.