State Key Laboratory for Advanced Metals and Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering , University of Science and Technology Beijing , Beijing 100083 , P. R. China.
State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals , Dalian University of Technology , Dalian 116024 , P. R. China.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2019 Feb 20;11(7):7369-7378. doi: 10.1021/acsami.8b19679. Epub 2019 Feb 6.
Ligand-protected gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) show promise for high performance in biological applications, such as imaging and therapeutics. The assembly of AuNCs with biological macromolecules represents a simple but effective approach to fine-tuning of material functionalities. Thus, these materials might enable intracellular applications of AuNCs. Herein, we prepared a new AuNC-based nanometric system through a self-assembly approach mediated by hydrophobic and electrostatic effects. We show that hydrophobic and electrostatic effects between fluorescent AuNCs with protamine and hyaluronic acid contribute to the formation of small nanocomposites with acceptable colloidal stability. More importantly, the AuNC-decorated nanocomposites show assembly enhanced emission and singlet oxygen generation. In vitro experiments showed that our nanocomposites labeled specific cells by targeting CD44 and induced cell death by producing singlet oxygen. Hence, our AuNC-decorated nanocomposites show great potential as theranostic fluorescent nanomaterials.
配体保护的金纳米团簇（AuNCs）在生物应用中表现出高性能的潜力，如成像和治疗。通过将 AuNCs 与生物大分子组装，可以实现对材料功能的精细调整。因此，这些材料可能使 AuNCs 能够应用于细胞内。在此，我们通过疏水和静电作用介导的自组装方法制备了一种基于新的 AuNC 的纳米级系统。我们表明，荧光 AuNC 与鱼精蛋白和透明质酸之间的疏水和静电作用有助于形成具有可接受胶体稳定性的小纳米复合材料。更重要的是，AuNC 修饰的纳米复合材料表现出组装增强的发射和单线态氧生成。体外实验表明，我们的纳米复合材料通过靶向 CD44 标记特定细胞，并通过产生单线态氧诱导细胞死亡。因此，我们的 AuNC 修饰的纳米复合材料作为治疗诊断荧光纳米材料具有巨大的潜力。
