Dr. Emilie Darrigues

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Academic Career Length

11Years (2016-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

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9 November 2019 in Nanoscale Horizons

Journal Article

3D cultures for modeling nanomaterial-based photothermal therapy

James M. Anderson

Photothermal therapy (PTT) is one of the most promising techniques for cancer tumor ablation. Nanoparticles are increasingly being investigated for use with PTT and can serve as theranostic agents. Based on the ability of near-infrared nano-photo-absorbers to generate heat under laser irradiation, PTT could prove advantageous in certain situations over more classical cancer therapies. To analyze the efficacy of nanoparticle-based PTT, preclinical in vitro studies typically use 2D cultures, but this method cannot completely mimic the complex tumor organization, bioactivity, and physiology that all control the complex penetration depth, biodistribution, and tissue diffusion parameters of nanomaterials in vivo. To fill this knowledge gap, 3D culture systems have been explored for PTT analysis. These models provide more realistic microenvironments that allow spatiotemporal oxygen gradients and cancer cell adaptations to be considered. This review highlights the work that has been done to advance 3D models for cancer microenvironment modeling, specifically in the context of advanced, functionalized nanoparticle-directed PTT.

4 September 2016 in Journal of Applied Toxicology

Journal Article

The role of surface chemistry in the cytotoxicity profile of graphene

Waqar Majeed

Shawn Bourdo

Dayton M. Petibone

Viney Saini

Kieng Bao Vang

Alexandru S. Biris

25 February 2020 in Scientific Reports

Journal Article

Tracking Gold Nanorods’ Interaction with Large 3D Pancreatic-Stromal Tumor Spheroids by Multimodal Imaging: Fluorescence, Photoacoustic, and Photothermal Microscopies

Emilie Darrigues

Zeid A. Nima

Dmitry A. Nedosekin

Fumiya Watanabe

Karrer M. Alghazali

Alexandru Biris

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most complex types of cancers to detect, diagnose, and treat. However, the field of nanomedicine has strong potential to address such challenges. When evaluating the diffusion and penetration of theranostic nanoparticles, the extracellular matrix (ECM) is of crucial importance because it acts as a barrier to the tumor microenvironment. In the present study, the penetration of functionalized, fluorescent gold nanorods into large (>500 μm) multicellular 3D tissue spheroids was studied using a multimodal imaging approach. The spheroids were generated by co-culturing pancreatic cancer cells and pancreatic stellate cells in multiple ratios to mimic variable tumor-stromal compositions and to investigate nanoparticle penetration. Fluorescence live imaging, photothermal, and photoacoustic analysis were utilized to examine nanoparticle behavior in the spheroids. Uniquely, the nanorods are intrinsically photoacoustic and photothermal, enabling multi-imaging detection even when fluorescence tracking is not possible or ideal.

3 October 2021 in International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Journal Article

Biobanked Glioblastoma Patient-Derived Organoids as a Precision Medicine Model to Study Inhibition of Invasion

Glioblastoma (GBM) is highly resistant to treatment and invasion into the surrounding brain is a cancer hallmark that leads to recurrence despite surgical resection. With the emergence of precision medicine, patient-derived 3D systems are considered potentially robust GBM preclinical models. In this study, we screened a library of 22 anti-invasive compounds (i.e., NF-kB, GSK-3-B, COX-2, and tubulin inhibitors) using glioblastoma U-251 MG cell spheroids. We evaluated toxicity and invasion inhibition using a 3D Matrigel invasion assay. We next selected three compounds that inhibited invasion and screened them in patient-derived glioblastoma organoids (GBOs). We developed a platform using available macros for FIJI/ImageJ to quantify invasion from the outer margin of organoids. Our data demonstrated that a high-throughput invasion screening can be done using both an established cell line and patient-derived 3D model systems. Tubulin inhibitor compounds had the best efficacy with U-251 MG cells, however, in ex vivo patient organoids the results were highly variable. Our results indicate that the efficacy of compounds is highly related to patient intra and inter-tumor heterogeneity. These results indicate that such models can be used to evaluate personal oncology therapeutic strategies.

14 July 2017 in Scientific Reports

Journal Article

Modifying Dendritic Cell Activation with Plasmonic Nano Vectors

Kieng Bao Vang

Ingrid Safina

Emilie Darrigues

Dmitry Nedosekin

Zeid Nima

Alexandru S. Biris

Dendritic cells (DCs) can acquire, process, and present antigens to T-cells to induce an immune response. For this reason, targeting cancer antigens to DCs in order to cause an immune response against cancer is an emerging area of nanomedicine that has the potential to redefine the way certain cancers are treated. The use of plasmonically active silver-coated gold nanorods (henceforth referred to as plasmonic nano vectors (PNVs)) as potential carriers for DC tumor vaccines has not been presented before. Effective carriers must be able to be phagocytized by DCs, present low toxicity, and induce the maturation of DCs—an early indication of an immune response. When we treated DCs with the PNVs, we found that the cell viability of DCs was unaffected, up to 200 μg/ml. Additionally, the PNVs associated with the DCs as they were phagocytized and they were found to reside within intracellular compartments such as endosomes. More importantly, the PNVs were able to induce expression of surface markers indicative of DC activation and maturation, i.e. CD40, CD86, and MHC class II. These results provide the first evidence that PNVs are promising carriers for DC-based vaccines and warrant further investigating for clinical use.

3 April 2017 in Drug Metabolism Reviews

Journal Article

Raman spectroscopy using plasmonic and carbon-based nanoparticles for cancer detection, diagnosis, and treatment guidance. Part 2: Treatment

Emilie Darrigues

Vijayalakshmi Dantuluri

Zeid Nima

Kieng Bao Vang-Dings

Robert Griffin

Alexandru S. Biris

Raman spectroscopy and surface-enhanced raman scattering (SERS) have the potential to improve the detection and monitoring of various diseases, particularly cancer, with or without the support of multifunctional active nanosystems. This review is focused on the recent advances that have made Raman a major tool for treatment guidance for surgical tumor resection or for analytical monitoring of various therapies, such as photodynamic therapy, photothermal therapy, and drug delivery. The potential of Raman spectroscopy and nanosytems to further improve cancer treatments is also discussed.

About Me

Dr. Emilie Darrigues is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Neurosurgery and the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute. Her research focuses on the development of personalized medicine platforms to improve diagnoses and therapies for primary and secondary brain tumors and supports the development of patient-derived tissues obtained from surgically resected tumors by establishing techniques to improve brain tumor biobanking. The development of cell lines from patient tumors for use as 3D models (organoids/spheroids) also is pursued as a strategy to evaluate the therapeutic efficiency of cancer treatments. Darrigues also uses multi-omics profiling techniques (i.e., bulk and single cell transcriptomics) to evaluate ex vivo organoid systems for similarity to parent tumors. Dr. Darrigues has been awarded with a Ph.D. in Applied Sciences from the University of Arkansas in Little Rock. The focus of her doctoral research, supported by NSF EPSCoR (CASE) funding, was to investigate and develop gold nanorods to aid in the imaging, active targeting, and treatment of 3D organoids/spheroids composed of pancreatic cancer cells, stem-cells and cancer-associated fibroblasts. Prior to her Ph.D. program, Darrigues completed two master’s degrees in Engineering and Chemistry, as well as two bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and Materials Science/Nanotechnology. She also worked for 5 years in industry and start-up companies.

Dr. Emilie Darrigues

Dr. Emilie Darrigues

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