We have developed jointly with collaborators in the School of Medicine, a bioconjugate between superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles and Phl p5a (one of the major allergens from grass pollen).

In this study we report the development of a bioconjugate between superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles and Phl p5a (one of the major allergens from grass pollen). The bioconjugate also contains an optical probe (Alexa647) conjugated to the nanoparticle via biotin-streptavidin association. We show that this conjugate has a range of features that makes it a very promising candidate to image the localization of this allergen in vivo: a) upon conjugation to the iron oxide nanoparticles, the allergen retains its allergenic activity; b) the magnetic properties of the iron oxide core of this bioconjugate are suitable for MR imaging; c) Alexa647 fluorophore retains its emission properties once attached to the iron oxide nanoparticles yielding a dual modality MRI-optical probe.

Full paper: F. Herranz, C.B. Schmidt-Weber, M.H. Shamji, A. Narkus, J. Ruiz-Cabello, R. Vilar, “Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles conjugated to a grass pollen allergen and an optical probe”,  Contr. Media Mol. Imaging  2012, 7, 435   (DOI: 10.1002/cmmi.1466)