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pH-Sensitive assembly/disassembly gold nanoparticles with the potential of tumor diagnosis and treatment

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Abstract

Due to the ability to combine the separately unique characteristics of assembled and disassembled nanoparticles (NPs), the stimuli-responsive self-assembly of NPs has attracted considerable interest in functional material applications especially biomaterials. Here we demonstrate a facile and versatile approach to regulate the self-assembly process and transition pH of Au NPs by fine-tuning the co-modified pH-responsive compounds and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG). Importantly the transition pH (ΔpH=0.4) of the system can be predetermined in the range of 8.2–5.8 (assembled to disassembled) and 8.2–4.2 (disassembled to assembled), which ideally covers the pH of normal tissue, tumor tissue milieu and organelles. The results of fluorescence imaging, Raman spectroscopy and photothermal conversion of the stimuli-responsive Au NPs shows the potential application for tumor specificity theranostics. In a nutshell this study provides a useful toolkit to design tumor-activatable self-assembled NPs with high specificity and universality.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51433004, 51773096), and the Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin (17JCZDJC33500) and PCSIRT (IRT1257).

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  1. These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Functional Polymer Materials of Ministry of Education, Institute of Polymer Chemistry, College of Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, China

    Jinlong Ma, Xiaomin Li, Zhenpeng Hu, Xinyu Wang, Yapei Zhang, Wei Wang, Qiang Wu & Zhi Yuan

  2. Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, China

    Zhi Yuan

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  1. Jinlong Ma
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  2. Xiaomin Li
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  3. Zhenpeng Hu
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  4. Xinyu Wang
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  6. Wei Wang
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  7. Qiang Wu
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  8. Zhi Yuan
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Correspondence to Zhi Yuan.

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Ma, J., Li, X., Hu, Z. et al. pH-Sensitive assembly/disassembly gold nanoparticles with the potential of tumor diagnosis and treatment. Sci. China Chem. 62, 105–117 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-018-9354-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-018-9354-0

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