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Polycation-functionalized gold nanodots with tunable near-infrared fluorescence for simultaneous gene delivery and cell imaging

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Abstract

Near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent metal nanodots may have significant advantages in biological detection and bioimaging. Herein, we introduce tunable near-infrared fluorescent gold nanodots (AuNDs) protected by branched polyethylenimine (PEI) modified by surface segmental attachment of sulfhydryl groups (PEI-SH), abbreviated as PEI-SH-AuNDs, for simultaneous gene delivery and cell imaging. The modified PEI endows the resultant PEI-SH-AuNDs with the following excellent advantages. Sulfhydryl groups of PEI-SH anchor to the surface of AuNDs, and such polycations with amine groups give PEI-SH-AuNDs remarkable stability. The cationic polymer PEI-SH with positive charges enables PEI-SH-AuNDs to perform gene delivery, and the gene transfection efficiency can reach 22.8%. Moreover, the fluorescence of PEI-SH-AuNDs is tunable from visible red light (wavelength 609 nm) to NIR light (wavelength 811 nm) via an increase in the size of AuNDs. PEI-SH-AuNDs yielded gene transfection efficiency similar to that of commercial PEI, but showed much lower cytotoxicity and much greater red-shift fluorescence. With excellent photoluminescent properties, such multifunctional fluorescent PEI-SH-AuNDs hold promise in applications to bioimaging and as ideal fluorescent probes for tracking gene transfection behavior.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51503085, 51373061 and 21304090), Science Foundation of China University of Petroleum, Beijing (No. 2462017YJRC027), open project of state key laboratory of supramolecular structure and materials (No. sklssm201724) and Graduate Innovation Fund of Jilin University (Project 2016112). We would like to thank Prof. Helmuth Moehwald from the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Germany for useful discussions and helpful suggestions.

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  1. Yuanqing Sun and Dandan Wang contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials, College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, China

    Yuanqing Sun, Yueqi Zhao, Tianxin Zhao, Bai Yang & Quan Lin

  2. Institute of New Energy Technology, Ningbo Institute of Industrial Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo, 315201, China

    Chuanxi Wang

  3. School of Stomatology, Jilin University, Changchun, 130041, China

    Dandan Wang, Hongchen Sun & Xiangwei Li

  4. State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, College of Science, China University of Petroleum, Beijing, 102249, China

    Yuanqing Sun

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  1. Yuanqing Sun
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  4. Tianxin Zhao
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  5. Hongchen Sun
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Correspondence to Chuanxi Wang or Quan Lin.

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Polycation-functionalized gold nanodots with tunable near-infrared fluorescence for simultaneous gene delivery and cell imaging

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Sun, Y., Wang, D., Zhao, Y. et al. Polycation-functionalized gold nanodots with tunable near-infrared fluorescence for simultaneous gene delivery and cell imaging. Nano Res. 11, 2392–2404 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-017-1860-4

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