A Versatile Pep-CPDs Nanoprobe for Rapid Detection of mTBI Biomarker in Clinical Instances and Safe Fluorescence Imaging In Vivo for Improved Weight-Drop Mouse Model

Jian Shi; Xingmei Li; María José Cavagnaro; Jifeng Cai; Changquan Zhang; Na Li

doi:10.3389/fbioe.2022.807486

A Versatile Pep-CPDs Nanoprobe for Rapid Detection of mTBI Biomarker in Clinical Instances and Safe Fluorescence Imaging In Vivo for Improved Weight-Drop Mouse Model

Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2022 Mar 7:10:807486. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2022.807486. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Jian Shi^{1

2}, Xingmei Li³, María José Cavagnaro⁴, Jifeng Cai³, Changquan Zhang³, Na Li⁵

Affiliations

¹ Center for Experimental Medicine, The Third Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China.
² Department of Hematology and Critical Care Medicine, The Third Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China.
³ Department of Forensic Science, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Central South University, Changsha, China.
⁴ College of Medicine-Phoenix, University of Arizona, Phoenix, AZ, United States.
⁵ Department of Radiology, The Third Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China.

Abstract

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is the most common form of traumatic brain injury; however, it is the most difficult to be accurately identified in the early stage because it lacks more reliable biomarkers and detection methods. This study proposes a highly efficient system to detect a molecular biomarker for the early diagnosis of mTBI. The system was prepared by a lower cytotoxic peptide-modified fluorescent nanoprobe based on carbon polymer dots (pep-CPDs) with outstanding imaging capabilities. In vitro and in vivo tests were explored to the efficiency of pep-CPDs, inferring the good performances of cellular fluorescence imaging and in vivo imaging of mice. Moreover, an application of the versatile pep-CPDs on detecting the mTBI biomarker S100-β detection in a novel improved weight-drop mTBI mouse model and human blood samples has been successfully established. Overall, all these results indicate that the pep-CPD system is sensitive, rapid, non-toxic, and reliable for mTBI diagnosis compared with traditional detection methods. It shows a great potential in clinical and translational research and practical applications.

Keywords: TBI biomarkers; bioimaging; carbon polymer dots; early-warning strategy; fluorescent imaging; mild traumatic brain injury; non-toxic biosensors; versatile functionalized biomaterial.