title: General and programmable synthesis of hybrid liposome/metal nanoparticles.
abstract: Hybrid liposome/metal nanoparticles are promising candidate materials for biomedical applications. However, the poor selectivity and low yield of the desired hybrid during synthesis pose a challenge. We designed a programmable liposome by selective encoding of a reducing agent, which allows self-crystallization of metal nanoparticles within the liposome to produce stable liposome/metal nanoparticles alone. We synthesized seven types of liposome/monometallic and more complex liposome/bimetallic hybrids. The resulting nanoparticles are tunable in size and metal composition, and their surface plasmon resonance bands are controllable in visible and near infrared. Owing to outer lipid bilayer, our liposome/Au nanoparticle shows better colloidal stability in biologically relevant solutions as well as higher endocytosis efficiency than gold nanoparticles without the liposome. We used this hybrid in intracellular imaging of living cells via surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, taking advantage of its improved physicochemical properties. We believe that our method greatly increases the utility of metal nanoparticles in in vivo applications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Sogang University, Seoul 121-742, Korea.; Biomolecular Nanotechnology Center, Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Center, Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
authors.forename: Jin-Ho
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Sogang University, Seoul 121-742, Korea.
authors.forename: Yonghee
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sogang University, Seoul 121-742, Korea.
authors.forename: Wooju
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Sogang University, Seoul 121-742, Korea.
authors.forename: Keumrai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Whang
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sogang University, Seoul 121-742, Korea.
authors.forename: Dongchoul
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Biomolecular Nanotechnology Center, Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Center, Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
authors.forename: Luke P
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Sogang University, Seoul 121-742, Korea.
authors.forename: Jeong-Woo
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-0100-0582
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Sogang University, Seoul 121-742, Korea.
authors.forename: Taewook
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kang
mesh_terms: D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D003460:Crystallization; D006046:Gold; D006801:Humans; D008081:Liposomes / Q000138:chemical synthesis*; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles; D013059:Spectrum Analysis, Raman
chemical_list: D008081:Liposomes; D006046:Gold
keywords: general and programmable synthesis; hybrid liposome/metal nanoparticles; improved physicochemical properties; intracellular SERS and imaging; programmable liposome; self-crystallization