title: Luminescent nanocrystals in phospholipid micelles for bioconjugation: an optical and structural investigation.
abstract: Organic capped luminescent CdSe@ZnS nanocrystals (NCs) have been incorporated in block copolymer micelles, formed by polyethylene glycol modified phospholipids (PEG lipids). The obtained water soluble NC including PEG lipid micelles have been conjugated with bovine serum albumine (BSA). The entire process has been investigated by using optical, structural and electrophoretic complementary techniques. Such an integrated approach has allowed to elucidate critical issues, such as the time and temperature effects on the phase behavior of the PEG lipid/NC aggregate structures, the emitting properties of the NCs before and after micelle formation and bio-conjugation and the effect of conjugation on the biological moiety. The overall results provide relevant insight on the fabrication of the bio-conjugates, on their stability and on preparative procedure reproducibility, in view of the use of the resulting protein decorated NCs as multifunctional hybrid building blocks for the fabrication of a variety of supramolecular assemblies to exploit in biological sensing and diagnostic applications.
authors.affiliation: Istituto per i Processi Chimico Fisici (IPCF) CNR, sez. Bari, Via Orabona 4, 70126 Bari, Italy.
authors.forename: Nicoletta
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Depalo
authors.forename: Antonia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mallardi
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Comparelli
authors.forename: Marinella
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Striccoli
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Agostiano
authors.forename: Maria Lucia
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Curri
mesh_terms: D019187:Cadmium Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*; D008027:Light; D049449:Luminescence; D008823:Micelles; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D010743:Phospholipids / Q000737:chemistry*; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D018036:Selenium Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*; D012710:Serum Albumin, Bovine / Q000737:chemistry; D013440:Sulfides / Q000737:chemistry*; D017967:Zinc Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D019187:Cadmium Compounds; D008823:Micelles; D010743:Phospholipids; D018036:Selenium Compounds; D013440:Sulfides; D017967:Zinc Compounds; D012710:Serum Albumin, Bovine; C058667:cadmium selenide; C031238:zinc sulfide