Stable, compact, bright biofunctional quantum dots with improved peptide coating.
We developed a new peptide, natural phytochelatin (PC), which tightly binds to CdSe/ZnS quantum dots' (QDs) surfaces and renders them water-soluble. Coating QDs with this flexible and all-hydrophilic peptide offers high colloidal stability, adds only 0.8-0.9 nm to the radius of the particles (as compared to their original inorganic radius), preserves very high quantum yield (QY) in water, and affords facile bioconjugation with various functional groups. We demonstrate specific targeting (with minimal nonspecific binding) of such fluorescein-conjugated QDs to ScFv-fused mouse prion protein expressed in live N2A cells. We also demonstrated homogeneous in vivo biodistribution with no significant toxicity in live zebrafish.
Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA.
Jianmin
J
Xu
Piotr
P
Ruchala
Yuval
Y
Ebenstain
J Jack
JJ
Li
Shimon
S
Weiss
D000818:Animals; D019187:Cadmium Compounds / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D051379:Mice; D057054:Molecular Imaging; D010316:Particle Size; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D045663:Quantum Dots; D018036:Selenium Compounds / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D012995:Solubility; D013440:Sulfides / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D014018:Tissue Distribution; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry; D015027:Zebrafish; D017967:Zinc Compounds / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics
D019187:Cadmium Compounds; D010455:Peptides; D018036:Selenium Compounds; D013440:Sulfides; D017967:Zinc Compounds; D014867:Water; C058667:cadmium selenide; C031238:zinc sulfide