title: Laser-Activated Gene Silencing via Gold Nanoshell-siRNA Conjugates.
abstract: The temporal and spatial control over the delivery of materials such as siRNA into cells remains a significant technical challenge. We demonstrate the pulsed near-infrared (NIR) laser-dependent release of siRNA from coated 40 nm gold nanoshells. Tat-lipid coating mediates the cellular uptake of the nanomaterial at picomolar concentration, while spatiotemporal silencing of a reporter gene (green fluorescence protein) was studied using photomasking. The NIR laser-induced release of siRNA from the nanoshells is found to be power- and time-dependent, through surface-linker bond cleavage, while the escape of the siRNA from endosomes occurs above a critical pulse energy attributed to local heating and cavitation. NIR laser-controlled drug release from functional nanomaterials should facilitate more sophisticated developmental biology and therapeutic studies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
authors.forename: Gary B
authors.initials: GB
authors.lastname: Braun
authors.forename: Alessia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pallaoro
authors.forename: Guohui
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Dimitris
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Missirlis
authors.forename: Joseph A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Zasadzinski
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tirrell
authors.forename: Norbert O
authors.initials: NO
authors.lastname: Reich