Ultrastable BSA-capped gold nanoclusters with a polymer-like shielding layer against reactive oxygen species in living cells.
The prevalence of reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and the enzyme-containing intracellular environment could lead to the fluorescence quenching of bovine serum albumin (BSA)-capped gold nanoclusters (AuNCs). Here we report an efficient strategy to address this issue, where a polymer-like shielding layer is designed to wrap around the Au core to significantly improve the stability of AuNCs against ROS and protease degradation. The key of our design is to covalently incorporate a thiolated AuNC into the BSA-AuNC via carbodiimide-activated coupling, leading to the formation of a AuNC pair inside the cross-linked BSA molecule. The as-designed paired AuNCs in BSA (or BSA-p-AuNCs for short) show improved performances in living cells.
State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China. luchao@mail.buct.edu.cn.
Wenjuan
W
Zhou
State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China. luchao@mail.buct.edu.cn.
Yuqing
Y
Cao
State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China. luchao@mail.buct.edu.cn.
Dandan
D
Sui
State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China. luchao@mail.buct.edu.cn.
Weijiang
W
Guan
State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China. luchao@mail.buct.edu.cn.
Chao
C
Lu
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 119260, Singapore.
Jianping
J
Xie
D006046:Gold; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles; D011108:Polymers; D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species / Q000737:chemistry*; D012710:Serum Albumin, Bovine
D011108:Polymers; D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species; D012710:Serum Albumin, Bovine; D006046:Gold