Kuk‐Youn Ju

Melanin-like nanoparticles were synthesized with size control through neutralization of dopamine hydrochloride with NaOH, followed by spontaneous air oxidation of dopamine. Although the particle characteristic of natural melanins was understood to be significantly affected by the biological and structural environment, melanin-lke nanoparticles can be realized through the chemical reactions only. Melanin-like nanoparticles that are <100 nm showed excellent dispersion stability in water as well as biological media and good biocompatibility to HeLa cells after the appropriate surface modification with thiol-terminated methoxy-poly(ethylene glycol) (mPEG-SH). Furthermore, the demonstrated ability of melanin-like nanoparticles to reduce 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) suggests free radical scavenging activity of the material.

The development of nontoxic and biocompatible imaging agents will create new opportunities for potential applications in clinical MRI diagnosis. Synthetic melanin-like nanoparticles (MelNPs), analogous to natural sepia melanin (a major component of the cuttlefish ink), can be used as contrast agent for MRI. MelNPs complexed with paramagnetic Fe(3+) ions show much higher relaxivity values than existing MRI T1 contrast agents based on gadolinium (Gd) or manganese (Mn); MelNP values at 3T were r1 = 17 and r2 = 18 mM(-1) s(-1) (r2/r1 value of 1.1). With significant enhancement to MRI contrast, this biomimetic approach using MelNPs functionalized with paramagnetic Fe(3+) ions and surface-modified with biocompatible poly(ethylene glycol) units, could provide new insight into how melanin-based bioresponsive and therapeutic imaging probes integrate with their various biological functions.

In this work, we investigate the relationship between the complex hierarchical assembly structure of eumelanin, its characteristic broad absorption band, and the highly unusual nonlinear dynamics revealed by pump-probe or transient absorption microscopy. Melanin-like nanoparticles (MelNPs), generated by spontaneous oxidation of dopamine, were created with uniform but adjustable size distributions, and kinetically controlled oxidation was probed with a wide range of characterization methods. This lets us explore the broad absorption bands of eumelanin models at different assembly levels, such as small subunit fractions (single monomeric and oligomeric units and small oligomer stacks), stacked oligomer fractions (protomolecules), and large-scale aggregates of protomolecules (parental particles). Both the absorption and pump-probe dynamics are very sensitive to these structural differences or to the size of intact particles (a surprising result for an organic polymer). We show that the geometric packing order of protomolecules in long-range aggregation is key secondary interactions to extend the absorption band of eumelanin to the low energy spectrum and produce drastic changes in the transient absorption spectrum.

We present a new melanin-like nanoparticle (MelNP) and its performance evaluation results. This particle is proposed as an exogenous contrast agent for photoacoustic (PA) imaging. Conventional PA contrast agents are based on non-biological materials. In contrast, the MelNPs are organic nanoparticles inspired by natural melanin. Melanin is an endogenous chromophore that has the ability to produce a PA signal in vivo. The developed MelNPs are capable of aggregating with one another under mildly acidic conditions after introducing hydrolysis-susceptible citraconic amide on the surface of bare MelNPs. We ascertained that the physical aggregation of the MelNPs resulted in an increased PA signal strength in the near-infrared window of biological tissue (i.e., 700 nm) without absorption tuning. This phenomenon is likely because of the overlapping thermal fields of the developed MelNPs. The PA signal produced from the developed MelNPs, after exposure to mildly acidic conditions (i.e., pH 6), is 8.1 times stronger than under neutral conditions. This unique characteristic found in this study can be utilized in a practical strategy for highly sensitive in vivo cancer target imaging in response to its acidic microenvironment. This approach to amplify the PA response of MelNPs in clusters could accelerate the use of MelNPs as an alternative to non-biological nanoprobes, so that MelNPs may be applicable in PA imaging and functional PA imaging such as stimuli sensitive, multimodal, and theranostic imaging.

Spherical-shape melanin nanoparticles with good water-dispersibility were successfully synthesized by a simple oxidation polymerization of 3,4-dihydroxy-phenylalanin (DOPA) with <TEX>$KMnO_4$</TEX>. Similar features to those known from natural and synthetic melanin polymers were observed from prepared melanin nanoparticles by FT-IR, UV-Vis., and ESR spectroscopic methods. Their binding ability with several heavy metal ions from aqueous solution was quantitatively investigated, and the maximum binding capacities with melanin nanoparticles to lead, copper, and cadmium ions were obtained as 2.45, 2.17 and 1.88 mmol/g, respectively, which are much larger values than those reported from natural and synthetic melanin polymers. The large binding capacity and fast binding rate of melanin nanoparticles to metal ions can make them an excellent candidate for the remediation of contaminated water.