Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Center for MicroBioRobotics @SSSA, Viale Rinaldo Piaggio 34, 56025 Pontedera (Pisa), Italy.
Int J Pharm. 2012 Oct 15;436(1-2):444-53. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpharm.2012.06.037. Epub 2012 Jun 23.
In this paper we report on a covalent grafting of boron nitride nanotubes with human transferrin. After silanization of the nanotube wall, transferrin was linked to the nanotubes through carbamide binding. The obtained transferrin-conjugated boron nitride nanotubes (tf-BNNTs) resulted stable in aqueous environments and were characterized in terms of scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, size distribution analysis and Z-potential measurement. Effective covalent grafting of transferrin was demonstrated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and UV-Vis spectrophotometry. The obtained tf-BNNTs were thereafter tested on human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs); in particular cellular up-take was investigated by confocal, scanning and transmission electron microscopy, demonstrating the key role of transferrin during the internalization process. Here reported for the first time in the literature, the covalent BNNT functionalization with a targeting ligand represents a fundamental step towards BNNT exploitation as smart and selective nanocarriers in a number of nanomedicine applications.
本文报道了一种将氮化硼纳米管与转铁蛋白共价接枝的方法。在对纳米管壁进行硅烷化处理后，通过酰胺键将转铁蛋白连接到纳米管上。所得的转铁蛋白修饰的氮化硼纳米管（tf-BNNTs）在水相环境中稳定，并通过扫描电子显微镜、透射电子显微镜、粒径分布分析和 Zeta 电位测量进行了表征。傅里叶变换红外光谱和紫外可见分光光度法证明了转铁蛋白的有效共价接枝。所得的 tf-BNNTs 随后在人脐静脉内皮细胞（HUVECs）上进行了测试；特别是通过共聚焦、扫描和透射电子显微镜研究了细胞摄取，证明了转铁蛋白在摄取过程中的关键作用。本文首次在文献中报道了将靶向配体共价接枝到 BNNTs 上，这是将 BNNTs 作为智能和选择性纳米载体应用于多种纳米医学的重要一步。
