title: Detection of Gold Nanoparticles Aggregation Growth Induced by Nucleic Acid through Laser Scanning Confocal Microscopy.
abstract: The gold nanoparticle (GNP) aggregation growth induced by deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is studied by laser scanning confocal and environmental scanning electron microscopies. As in the investigated case the direct light scattering analysis is not suitable, we observe the behavior of the fluorescence produced by a dye and we detect the aggregation by the shift and the broadening of the fluorescence peak. Results of laser scanning confocal microscopy images and the fluorescence emission spectra from lambda scan mode suggest, in fact, that the intruding of the hydrophobic moiety of the probe within the cationic surfactants bilayer film coating GNPs results in a Förster resonance energy transfer. The environmental scanning electron microscopy images show that DNA molecules act as template to assemble GNPs into three-dimensional structures which are reminiscent of the DNA helix. This study is useful to design better nanobiotechnological devices using GNPs and DNA.
authors.affiliation: Physics Department, University of Calabria, Rende 87036, Italy. gary-ramla@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Ramla
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gary
authors.affiliation: Physics Department, University of Calabria, Rende 87036, Italy. giovanni.carbone@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Giovani
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Carbone
authors.affiliation: Physics Department, University of Calabria, Rende 87036, Italy. g.petriashvili@yahoo.co.uk.|Institute of Cybernetics of the Georgian Technical University, Euli str. 5, 0175 Tbilisi, Georgia. g.petriashvili@yahoo.co.uk.
authors.forename: Gia
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Petriashvili
authors.affiliation: Physics Department, University of Calabria, Rende 87036, Italy. maria.desanto@fis.unical.it.|CNR-Nanotec UOS di Cosenza, c/o University of Calabria, Rende 87036, Italy. maria.desanto@fis.unical.it.
authors.forename: Maria Penelope
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: De Santo
authors.affiliation: Physics Department, University of Calabria, Rende 87036, Italy. riccardo.barberi@fis.unical.it.|CNR-Nanotec UOS di Cosenza, c/o University of Calabria, Rende 87036, Italy. riccardo.barberi@fis.unical.it.
authors.forename: Riccardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Barberi
mesh_terms: D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry; D031541:Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry*; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal; D009696:Nucleic Acids / Q000737:chemistry*; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D009696:Nucleic Acids; D006046:Gold; D004247:DNA
keywords: Förster resonance energy transfer; deoxyribonucleic acid; gold nanoparticle aggregation; hydrophobicity; laser scanning confocal microscopy; surface plasmon resonance