Biological Targeting of Plasmonic Nanoparticles Improves Cellular Imaging via the Enhanced Scattering in the Aggregates Formed.

ABSTRACT: Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) demonstrate great promise in biomedical applications due to their plasmonically enhanced imaging properties. When in close proximity, AuNPs plasmonic fields couple together, increasing their scattering cross-section due to the formation of hot spots, improving their imaging utility. In the present study, we modified the AuNPs surface with different peptides to target the nucleus and/or the cell as a whole, resulting in similar cellular uptake but different scattering intensities. Nuclear-targeted AuNPs showed the greatest scattering due to the formation of denser nanoparticle clusters (i.e., increased localization). We also obtained a dynamic profile of AuNP localization in living cells, indicating that nuclear localization is directly related to the number of nu

SUBMITTER: Aioub M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4126704 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature