Bioconjugation of Interferon-alpha Molecules to Lysine-Capped Gold Nanoparticles for Further Drug Delivery Applications

Gold nanoparticles are potentially very attractive components for therapeutic delivery since they can be synthesized with any diameter from 1 to 200 nm to carry a payload of therapeutic molecules into a cell without triggering an immune response. Gold nanoparticles must undergo surface transformations before coupling to therapeutic molecules to become eligible for this purpose. It is now more understood that amine groups can bind to gold nanoparticles strongly, which has enabled surface modification of gold nanoparticles with amino acid lysine through its amine group. These lysine capped gold nanoparticles can further be coupled to therapeutic molecules for delivery purposes. In this study gold nanoparticles were first synthesized and capped with lysine molecules. TEM and FTIR measurements demonstrated the synthesis of lysine-capped gold nanoparticles with an average diameter of 10 nanometers. Interferon alpha molecules-one of the most important therapeutic protein were then chemically bound to lysine-capped gold nanoparticles through a two-step process of diimide-activated amidation. The conjugation of interferon molecules to lysine capped gold nanoparticles was carried out via the reaction between the free amine group of lysine and carboxyl groups of interferon using N-ethyl-N′-13-dimethyl-aminopropyl (EDAC) as a coupling agent. The process of conjugation has also been studied by transmission electron microscopy.     

金纳米粒子的合成、特性及其在生物医学检测中的应用研究进展

近年来,纳米技术越来越广泛的应用到各个领域,金纳米粒子因其具有许多优良的物理、化学及生物学性质而引起了人们特别的关注。本文综述了金纳米粒子几种经典的合成方法,以及基于金纳米粒子独特的理化性质在病原体、核酸蛋白质检测方面的最新研究进展。     

The in vitro and in vivo toxicity of gold nanoparticles

Gold nanoparticles,owing to their unique physicochemical and optical properties,well-established synthetic methods and easy modifications,have been widely used in biomedical science.Therefore,for their safe and efficient applications,much attention has been given to the toxicological evaluations of gold nanoparticles in biological systems.A large number of studies focusing on this problem have been carried out during the past years.However,the researches on gold nanoparticles toxicity still remain fragmentary and even contradictory with each other.This may be caused by the variety in experimental conditions.In this review,we aim to provide a better understanding about the in vitro and in vivo toxicity of gold nanoparticles by reviewing and describing the up to date literatures related to this problem and we mainly focused on these properties such as the particle size and shape,the surface charge and modification.Besides,we also summarized the adverse effect of gold nanoparticles on immune systems and analyzed the origin of the toxicity.     

金纳米粒子与蛋白质的相互作用及其应用

金纳米粒子与蛋白质间存在多种作用方式,包括物理吸附、化学共价结合以及非共价特异性吸附等.金纳米粒子表面等离子体共振效应引起可见光区的特征吸收及表面增强拉曼散射,常用来研究金纳米粒子与蛋白质间的相互作用.金纳米粒子与蛋白质间的作用与纳米粒子的尺寸、表面化学及蛋白质的大小、电荷、氨基酸残基有关.利用金纳米粒子与蛋白质的相互作用及纳米金的谱学性质,可以对疾病或环境污染进行简单、高效、低成本检测,也可用于疾病治疗.     

Photofragmentation of phase-transferred gold nanoparticles by intense pulsed laser light

Gold nanoparticles with an average diameter of approximately 20 nm were prepared in an aqueous solution by a wet chemistry method. The parent gold nanoparticles were then capped with a 4-aminothiophenol protecting layer and transferred into toluene by tuning the surface charge of the modified nanoparticles. Gold nanoparticles before and after phase transfer were subjected to photofragmentation by a pulsed 532 nm laser. The effects of solvent properties and surface chemistry on the photofragmentation of the gold nanoparticles have been investigated. Fast photofragmentation has been observed in the organic solvent in which the dielectric constant, heat capacity, and thermal conductivity are lower. The results suggest new approaches for the preparation of very small gold clusters from gold nanoparticles.     

Synthesis of hydroxyapatite crystals using amino acid-capped gold nanoparticles as a scaffold

Inorganic composites are of special interest for biomedical applications such as in dental and bone implants wherein the ability to modulate the morphology and size of the inorganic crystals is important. One interesting possibility to control the size of inorganic crystals is to grow them on nanoparticles. We report here the use of surface-modified gold nanoparticles as templates for the growth of hydroxyapatite crystals. Crystal growth is promoted by a monolayer of aspartic acid bound to the surface of the gold nanoparticles; the carboxylate ions in aspartic acid are excellent binging sites for Ca(2+) ions. Isothermal titration calorimetry studies of Ca(2+) ion binding with aspartic acid-capped gold nanoparticles indicates that the process is entropically driven and that screening of the negative charge by the metal ions leads to their aggregation. The aggregates of gold nanoparticles are believed to be responsible for assembly of the platelike hydroxyapatite crystals into quasi-spherical superstructures. Control experiments using uncapped gold nanoparticles and pure aspartic acid indicate that the amino acid bound to the nanogold surface plays a key role in inducing and directing hydroxyapatite crystal growth.     

Gold nanoparticles for the development of clinical diagnosis methods

The impact of advances in nanotechnology is particularly relevant in biodiagnostics, where nanoparticle-based assays have been developed for specific detection of bioanalytes of clinical interest. Gold nanoparticles show easily tuned physical properties, including unique optical properties, robustness, and high surface areas, making them ideal candidates for developing biomarker platforms. Modulation of these physicochemical properties can be easily achieved by adequate synthetic strategies and give gold nanoparticles advantages over conventional detection methods currently used in clinical diagnostics. The surface of gold nanoparticles can be tailored by ligand functionalization to selectively bind biomarkers. Thiol-linking of DNA and chemical functionalization of gold nanoparticles for specific protein/antibody binding are the most common approaches. Simple and inexpensive methods based on these bio-nanoprobes were initially applied for detection of specific DNA sequences and are presently being expanded to clinical diagnosis. Figure Colorimetric DNA/RNA detection using salt induced aggregation of AuNP-DNA nanoprobes.     

Gold nanoshells on polystyrene cores for control of surface plasmon resonance

A method is presented for synthesizing core-shell structures consisting of monodisperse polystyrene latex nanospheres as cores and gold nanoparticles as shells. Use of polystyrene spheres as the core in these structures is advantageous because they are readily available commercially in a wide range of sizes, and with dyes or other molecules doped into them. Gold nanoparticles, ranging in size from 1 to 20 nm, are prepared by reduction of a gold precursor with sodium citrate or tetrakis(hydroxymethyl)phosphonium chloride (THPC). Carboxylate-terminated polystyrene spheres are functionalized with 2-aminoethanethiol hydrochloride (AET), which forms a peptide bond with carboxylic acid groups on their surface, resulting in a thiol-terminated surface. Gold nanoparticles then bind to the thiol groups to provide up to about 50% coverage of the surface. These nanoparticles serve as seeds for growth of a continuous gold shell by reduction of additional gold precursor. The shell thickness and roughness can be controlled by the size of the nanoparticle seeds as well as by the process of their growth into a continuous shell. By variation of the relative sizes of the latex core and the thickness of the gold overlayer, the plasmon resonance of the nanoshell can be tuned to specific wavelengths across the visible and infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum, for applications ranging from the construction of photonic crystals to biophotonics. The position and width of the plasmon resonance extinction peak are well-predicted by extended Mie scattering theory.     

金纳米粒子的表面修饰及生物应用进展

近年来纳米材料被广泛应用于生物医学、航空航天和精细化工等领域。构成纳米材料的纳米粒子具有小尺寸效应、表面效应和宏观量子隧道效应等性质。其中金纳米粒子由于其独特的荧光特性、良好的生物相容性和表面等离子共振等性质,被广大科研人员进行深入研究。例如,在生物医学领域,科研人员构建了一系列新型的金纳米比色传感器、光学探针及各类载药体系等。然而,目前金纳米粒子仍存在水分散性差、肾清除效率低和量子发射产率低等问题,限制了其广泛应用。因此,研究人员对金纳米粒子表面进行多样化修饰,从而能有效克服上述缺点。本文就目前主流配体表面修饰金纳米粒子的研究进展进行了详细总结,着重介绍了功能化金纳米粒子在生物成像、生物检测、生物治疗三方面的应用,最后对金纳米粒子的临床治疗机制的探索以及商业化的应用进行了展望,希望能为相关领域的研究者们提供新思路。     

Facile electrocatalytic redox of hemoglobin by flower-like gold nanoparticles on boron-doped diamond surface

The flower-like gold nanoparticles together with spherical and convex polyhedron gold nanoparticles were fabricated on boron-doped diamond (BDD) surface by one-step and simple electrochemical method through easily controlling the applied potential and the concentration of HAuCl(4). The recorded X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns confirmed that these three shapes of gold nanoparticles were dominated by different crystal facets. The cyclic voltammetric results indicated that the morphology of gold nanoparticles plays big role in their electrochemical behaviors. The direct electrochemistry of hemoglobin (Hb) was realized on all the three different shapes of nanogold-attached BDD surface without the aid of any electron mediator. In pH 4.5 acetate buffer solutions (ABS), Hb showed a pair of well defined and quasi-reversible redox peaks. However, the results obtained demonstrated that the redox peak potential, the average surface concentration of electroactive heme, and the electron transfer rates of Hb are greatly dependent upon the surface morphology of gold nanoparticles. The electron transfer rate constant of hemoglobin over flower-like nanogold/BDD electrode was more than two times higher than that over spherical and convex polyhedron nanogold. The observed differences may be ascribed to the difference in gold particle characteristics including surface roughness, exposed surface area, and crystal structure.     

Catalytic properties of supported gold nanoparticles in organic syntheses

Gold nanoparticles exhibit unique properties due to their ability to form aggregates of atoms of diverse morphology shapes and sizes of which depend, to a considerable extent, on specific features of the nearest environment. The nature of gold nanoparticles varies in a wide range: from the particles with pronounced Lewis acidic properties to the negatively charged particles bearing a formal zero-valence charge. The most examples of new reactions catalyzed by gold nanoparticles include unsaturated compounds and strong nucleophiles (such as amines) as substrates. This short review provides a digest of the catalytic properties of gold nanoparticles. The main attention is paid to the possible role of certain forms of the metal in catalytic reactions. Of special interest are reactions in which effects of synergism of gold and other active species or second metals present in the catalyst are revealed or a size effect is established.     

Surface chemistry of gold nanoparticles for health-related applications

Functionalization of gold nanoparticles is crucial for the effective utilization of these materials in health-related applications. Health-related applications of gold nanoparticles rely on the physical and chemical reactions between molecules and gold nanoparticles. Surface chemistry can precisely control and tailor the surface properties of gold nanoparticles to meet the needs of applications. Gold nanoparticles have unique physical and chemical properties, and have been used in a broad range of applications from prophylaxis to diagnosis and treatment. The surface chemistry of gold nanoparticles plays a crucial role in all of these applications. This minireview summarizes these applications from the perspective of surface chemistry and explores how surface chemistry improves and imparts new properties to gold nanoparticles for these applications.

Functionalization of gold nanoparticles is crucial for the effective utilization of these materials in health-related applications.     

单分子层保护纳米 Au 粒子表面配位催化剂的制备及其应用

 贵金属纳米粒子由于其小尺寸效应而表现出特殊的催化性能. 综述了纳米 Au 粒子表面配位催化剂的制备方法及其在催化中的应用. 由于 Au 可与硫化物形成配位键, 所以硫化物可在 Au 表面形成有序单分子膜. 单分子膜保护的 Au 纳米粒子具有非常好的溶解性、分散性、稳定性, 以及由不同的表面功能团而导致的不同的催化性能. 该催化体系兼具均相催化剂和多相催化剂的特点, 这对开发新型催化剂具有重要的理论和实际意义.     

Directed assembly of gold nanoparticles

As a complement to common “top–down” lithography techniques, “bottom–up” assembly techniques are emerging as promising tools to build nanoscale structures in a predictable way. Gold nanoparticles that are stable and relatively easy to synthesize are important building blocks in many such structures due to their useful optical and electronic properties. Programmed assembly of gold nanoparticles in one, two, and three dimensions is therefore of large interest. This review focuses on the progress from the last three years in the field of directed gold nanoparticle and nanorod assembly using, for example, DNA or specific chemical interactions as template.     

Gold Nanoparticles for Cancer Theranostics

Gold nanoparticles have seen unprecedented development in the biomedical field, particularly for cancer therapy. They have received extensive attention because of their easy preparation, functionalization, biocompatibility, non‐cytotoxicity, and detectability. Functionalized gold nanoparticles can be applied in the fields of drug and gene delivery, photothermal therapy, and bioimaging. This review introduces methods for preparing various shapes of gold nanoparticles and describes their current applications in the field of cancer treatment. Moreover, the review presents the development routes and current issues of gold nanoparticles in clinical theranostics.     

Binding of chloroquine-conjugated gold nanoparticles with bovine serum albumin

We have conjugated chloroquine, an anti-malarial, antiviral and anti-tumor drug, with thiol-functionalized gold nanoparticles and studied their binding interaction with bovine serum albumin (BSA) protein. Gold nanoparticles have been synthesized using sodium borohydride as reducing agent and 11-mercaptoundecanoic acid as thiol functionalizing ligand in aqueous medium. The formation of gold nanoparticles was confirmed from the characteristic surface plasmon absorption band at 522 nm and transmission electron microscopy revealed the average particle size to be ~7 nm. Chloroquine was conjugated to thiolated gold nanoparticles by using EDC/NHS chemistry and the binding was analyzed using optical density measurement and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The chloroquine-conjugated gold nanoparticles (GNP-Chl) were found to interact efficiently with BSA. Thermodynamic parameters suggest that the binding is driven by both enthalpy and entropy, accompanied with only a minor alteration in protein's structure. Competitive drug binding assay revealed that the GNP-Chl bind at warfarin binding site I in subdomain IIA of BSA and was further supported by Trp212 fluorescence quenching measurements. Unraveling the nature of interactions of GNP-Chl with BSA would pave the way for the design of nanotherapeutic agents with improved functionality, enriching the field of nanomedicine.     

Surface-grafted hybrid material consisting of gold nanoparticles and dextran exhibits mobility and reversible aggregation on a surface

Gold nanoparticles linked to linear carboxylated dextran chains were attached to 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane-functionalized glass surfaces. This method provides novel hybrid nanostructures on a surface with the unique optical properties of gold nanoparticles. The particles attached to the surface retain the capability to aggregate and disaggregate in response to their environment. This procedure presents an alternative method to the immobilization of gold nanoparticles onto planar substrates. Compared to gold nanoparticle monolayers, larger particle surface densities were obtained. Exposure to hydrophobic environments changes the conformation of the hydrophilic dextran chains, causing the gold nanoparticles to aggregate and inducing changes in the absorption spectrum such as red-shifting and broadening of the plasmon absorption peaks. These changes, characteristic of particle aggregation, are reversible. When the substrates are dried and then immersed in an aqueous environment, these changes can be visually observed in a reversible fashion and the sample changes color from the red color of colloidal gold to a bluish-purple color of aggregated nanoparticles. Surface-bound nanoparticles that retain their mobility when attached to a surface by means of a flexible polymer chain could expand the use of aggregation-based assays to solid substrates.     

基于微机电系统技术和纳米金自组装膜的安培型免疫传感器研究

基于微机电系统(MEMS)技术制备安培型免疫传感器,并利用基于硫醇单层膜的纳米金单层膜自组装技术设计传感器界面,用于固定人免疫球蛋白(IgG)抗体,研制了一种新型的安培型免疫传感器。采用MEMS技术,在硅片上制备微型的三电极系统以及SU-8反应池。基于自组装技术,先在金电极上自组装巯基乙胺单层膜,利用膜上氨基与纳米金共价结合组装纳米金单层膜,得到可用于固定抗体的界面。实验探讨了影响抗体固定的主要实验参数和条件;考察了采用此固定化方法传感器的响应性能,与金电极直接吸附固定法和戊二醛共价交联固定法进行了比较。对IgG检测的实验结果表明,采用纳米金自组装膜固定抗体,具有活性高、非特异性吸附小、检测线性范围宽等优点。并且,基于MEMS技术的安培型免疫传感器具有微型化、与集成电路工艺相兼容、易于实现传感器的阵列化和实时多参数检测等优点。     

Microbial synthesis of gold nanoparticles: Current status and future prospects

Gold nanoparticles have been employed in biomedicine since the last decade because of their unique optical, electrical and photothermal properties. Present review discusses the microbial synthesis, properties and biomedical applications of gold nanoparticles. Different microbial synthesis strategies used so far for obtaining better yield and stability have been described. It also includes different methods used for the characterization and analysis of gold nanoparticles, viz. UV–visible spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X ray diffraction spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, ransmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, electron dispersive X ray, X ray photoelectron spectroscopy and cyclic voltametry. The different mechanisms involved in microbial synthesis of gold nanoparticles have been discussed. The information related to applications of microbially synthesized gold nanoparticles and patents on microbial synthesis of gold nanoparticles has been summarized.     

Microscale golden Candock leaves self-aggregated on a polymer surface: Raman scattering enhancement and superhydrophobicity

Gold nanoparticles (AuNP's) prepared through a controllable synthesis and aggregation process are attractive for their unique properties that arise from their surface plasmon resonances (SPRs). However, aggregation-controlled AuNP's on amorphous surfaces have not been well explored. In this study, we present a simple in situ synthesis method for preparing AuNP's in which the AuNP's self-aggregate into microscale Candock-leaf-like structures on a polyelectrolyte film (PEF) surface. In this approach, the PEF plays an important role in adsorbing and storing AuCl(4)(-) as well as in controlling the release speed of AuCl(4)(-) in the preparation process. The mechanism for forming these Candock-leaf-like structures has been illustrated by both the growth process of gold nanoparticles and the Ostwald ripenning of the aggregations. AuNP's with a unique structure exhibited significantly enhanced surface Raman scattering and strong superhydrophobicity.