Purine-stabilized green fluorescent gold nanoclusters for cell nuclei imaging applications.
We report facile one-pot synthesis of water-soluble green fluorescent gold nanoclusters (AuNCs), capped with 8-mercapto-9-propyladenine. The synthesized AuNCs were characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), (1)H NMR, and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry. These nanoclusters show high photostability and biocompatibility. We observed that AuNCs stain cell nuclei with high specificity, where the mechanism of AuNC uptake was established through pathway-specific uptake inhibitors. These studies revealed that cell internalization of AuNCs occurs via a macropinocytosis pathway.
Department of Chemistry, ‡Department of Chemical Engineering, Material Science Programme, and §DST Thematic Unit of Excellence on Soft Nanofabrication, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur , Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh 208016, India.
V
V
Venkatesh
Akansha
A
Shukla
Sri
S
Sivakumar
Sandeep
S
Verma
D000818:Animals; D016923:Cell Death; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000378:metabolism*; D005399:Fishes; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry*; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D051379:Mice; D057054:Molecular Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D011687:Purines / Q000737:chemistry*; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared
D011687:Purines; D006046:Gold; C030985:purine