Targeted extracellular nanoparticles enable intracellular detection of activated epidermal growth factor receptor in living brain cancer cells

Mechanistic study of biological processes via Quantum dots (QDs) remain constrained by inefficient QD delivery methods and consequent altered cell function. The authors present a rapid method to label activated receptor populations within live cancer cells derived from medulloblastoma and glioma tumors. The authors used Qdots to bind the extracellular domain of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGF-R) proteins and then induced receptor activation to facilitate specific detection of intracellular, activated EGF-R subpopulations. Such labeling enables rapid identification of biological markers characteristic of tumor type, grade, and chemo-resistance.160