National Engineering Laboratory for Modern Silk, College of Textile and Clothing Engineering , Soochow University , Suzhou , 215123 , P. R. China.
Anhui Provincial Key Laboratory of the Conservation and Exploitation of Biological Resources, College of Life Sciences , Anhui Normal University , Wuhu , 241000 Anhui , China.
Bioconjug Chem. 2018 Dec 19;29(12):4140-4148. doi: 10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.8b00773. Epub 2018 Dec 6.
Fluorescence imaging has currently emerged as one of the most frequently used noninvasive imaging technologies to selectively monitor biological processes in living systems. In past decades, gold nanoclusters (Au NCs) has received increasing attraction because of their intrinsic fluorescence and their inherent biocompatibility. As a stabilizing and reducing agent, an abundant, sustainable, and widely used polypeptide derived drug molecule, aprotinin (Ap), is selected for the synthesis of Au nanoclusters (Ap-Au NCs) due to characteristic bioactivity, excellent biocompatibility, biodegradability, and non-allergenic character. Herein, Ap encapsulated Au NCs with desirable red fluorescence was facilely produced for the first time, which were subsequently used for cell imaging and detection of various analytes. Much interestingly, dynamically subcellular targeting from the cytoplasm to the nucleus in HeLa cells was observed. Besides, it has shown that, the selective and quantitative detection of trypsin has been established by using Ap-Au NCs. Finally, Ap-Au NCs were readily used for quantitative detection of mercury and copper. The photoluminescence of the Ap-Au NCs was quenched with the addition of the aforementioned analytes. This study not only discusses a multifunctional nanomaterial for cell imaging, dynamically nuclear targeting and biosensing, but also opens crucial insights on the integration of funtional biomolecule with metal nanoclusters intended for extensively biomedical applications.
荧光成像是目前最常用的非侵入性成像技术之一，可用于选择性监测活系统中的生物过程。在过去的几十年中，由于金纳米团簇（Au NCs）具有固有荧光和固有生物相容性，因此越来越受到关注。作为一种稳定和还原试剂，一种丰富、可持续且广泛使用的多肽衍生药物分子，抑肽酶（Ap）由于其特征生物活性、优异的生物相容性、生物可降解性和非变应原性而被选择用于合成 Au 纳米团簇（Ap-Au NCs）。本文首次简便地制备了具有理想红色荧光的 Ap 包裹的 Au NCs，随后将其用于细胞成像和各种分析物的检测。更有趣的是，在 HeLa 细胞中观察到了从细胞质到细胞核的动态亚细胞靶向。此外，已经表明可以通过使用 Ap-Au NCs 来选择性和定量检测胰蛋白酶。最后，很容易使用 Ap-Au NCs 来定量检测汞和铜。随着上述分析物的加入，Ap-Au NCs 的光致发光被猝灭。这项研究不仅讨论了一种用于细胞成像、动态核靶向和生物传感的多功能纳米材料，而且还为将功能性生物分子与金属纳米团簇集成用于广泛的生物医学应用提供了重要的见解。
