Self-assembly of adenovirus-templated platinum nanoshells and evaluation of their biocompatibilities

Abstract

In this study, the self-assembly of platinum nanoshells (PtNSs) in facile conditions, using the adenovirus shuttle vector-GFP (Adv) as a biotemplate, was achieved. This novel and simple biotemplating method can be summarized as direct co-incubation of the template Adv and PtCl₄ solution, followed by the reduction of the co-incubation solution using NaBH₄. The prepared Adv–PtNSs were then characterized by TEM, XRD and FTIR. The TEM results indicated that Adv–PtNSs, with good morphologies and monodispersity, can be obtained by controlling the concentration of PtCl₄ as 7.5 mM, and the obtained Adv–PtNSs were about 100 nm. The results of XRD and FITR demonstrated that the prepared Adv–PtNSs were in a face-centered cubic structure, and the combination between the Adv and platinum complex ions mainly depended on –NH groups. In addition, the biocompatibilities of the prepared Adv–PtNSs to H9c2 cells were investigated. MTT assay results showed that as-prepared Adv–PtNSs had relatively high biocompatibilities, and caused almost no harm to H9c2 cells. Therefore, Adv–PtNSs have great potential as bioelectrode materials for monitoring the states of organisms.