Highly Fluorescent Gene Carrier Based on Ag-Au Alloy Nanoclusters.
For systemic delivery of gene, gold nanoparticles (GNPs) have been exploited as novel gene carriers because of the excellent characteristics for "visible" in intracellular trafficking. Herein, a highly fluorescent gene carrier was prepared by conjugating polyethylenimines on Ag-Au alloy nanoclusters. This carrier exhibited remarkable high gene transfection efficiencies and relatively low cytotoxicity toward B16F10, HeLa, and CHO cells. More interestingly, the high fluorescent Ag-Au-PEI conjugates showed high quantum yield of 14.56%, which is much higher than most of the reported gold nanocluster-based quantum dots and Ag-Au-PEI possessed bioimaging capacity both in vitro and in vivo.
College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, China.
Ping
P
Wang
Key Laboratory of polymer Ecomaterials, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130022, China.
Lin
L
Lin
Key Laboratory of polymer Ecomaterials, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130022, China.
Zhaopei
Z
Guo
Key Laboratory of polymer Ecomaterials, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130022, China.
Jie
J
Chen
Key Laboratory of polymer Ecomaterials, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130022, China. thy@ciac.ac.cn.
Huayu
H
Tian
Key Laboratory of polymer Ecomaterials, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130022, China.
Xuesi
X
Chen
College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, China. huayang@jlu.edu.cn.
Hua
H
Yang
D000497:Alloys / Q000737:chemistry*; D000818:Animals; D016466:CHO Cells; D002470:Cell Survival; D003412:Cricetulus; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D006046:Gold; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D011094:Polyethyleneimine; D012834:Silver; D014162:Transfection / Q000379:methods*
D000497:Alloys; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D012834:Silver; D006046:Gold; D011094:Polyethyleneimine
Ag-Au alloy nanoclusters; fluorescent gene carrier; gene transfection; quantum yield