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Ultrasound tool designed from Lego-like protein

Washington: A new study outlines how protein engineering techniques may help to image not just anatomy of the baby in ultrasound but also show specific cells and molecules deeper in the body such as those associated with tumor or bacteria in our gut.

The researchers engineered protein-shelled nanostructures called gas vesicles- which reflect sound waves- to exhibit new properties useful for ultrasound technologies.

In the future, these gas vesicles could be administered to a patient to visualize tissues of interest. The modified gas vesicles give more distinct signals, making them easier to image or target specific cell types and help create color ultrasound images.

“It’s somewhat like engineering with molecular Legos,” said senior author Mikhail Shapiro.

“We can swap different protein ‘pieces’ on the surface of gas vesicles to alter their targeting properties and to visualize multiple molecules in different colors,” he added.

Anupama Lakshmanan, lead author of the study, said: “Today, ultrasound is mostly anatomical. We want to bring it down to the molecular and cellular level.”

In 2014, Shapiro first discovered the potential use of gas vesicles in ultrasound imaging. These gas-filled structures naturally occur in water-dwelling single-celled organisms such as Anabaena flos-aquae, a species of cyanobacteria that forms filamentous clumps of multicell chains.

Shapiro realized that the vesicles would readily reflect sound waves during ultrasound imaging and ultimately demonstrated this using mouse.


The protein can be engineered to have different sizes with longer versions of the protein producing stronger and stiffer nanostructures.

“The proteins are like the framing rods of an airplane fuselage. You use them to determine the mechanics of the structure,” Shapiro said.

In another experiment, the scientists removed the strengthening protein from gas vesicles and then administered the engineered vesicles to mice and performed ultrasound imaging. Compared to normal vesicles, the modified vesicles vibrated more in response to sound waves and thus resonated with harmonic frequencies.


In the other set of experiments, the researchers demonstrated how gas vesicles could be made to target certain tissues in the body. They genetically engineered the vesicles to display various cellular targets such as an amino acid sequence that recognizes proteins called integrins that are overproduced in tumor cells.

“Adding these functionalities to the gas vesicles is like snapping on a new Lego piece; it’s a modular system,” said Shapiro.

The team also showed how multicolor ultrasound images might be created. Shapiro’s group created an approach for imaging three different types of gas vesicles as separate ‘colors’ based on their differential ability to resist collapse under pressure.





The research is published in ACS Nano journal. (ANI)

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