Issue 43, 2018

Specific binding and internalization: an investigation of fluorescent aptamer-gold nanoclusters and cells with fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy

Abstract

Fluorescent gold nanoclusters show promising properties for biological applications. We biofunctionalized fluorescent 11-mercaptoundecanoic-acid stabilized gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) with an aptamer to target the interleukin-6-receptor expressed on BaF3 cells specifically. Although the fluorescence emission of the AuNCs (535 nm) is in the same wavelength region as the autofluorescence of the cell, we are able to distinguish between nanoclusters and cells using the fluorescence decay time, which is much longer for the AuNCs (100 ns) than for the autofluorescence. After a first short incubation period we detected AuNCs specifically bound to the cell membrane by using two fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) methods: gated and direct FLIM. After a second incubation period the previously bound AuNCs are internalized by the cells, as could be resolved solely by the direct FLIM. This proves the superior sensitivity of this method compared to gated FLIM. We find that the optical properties of AuNCs do not change upon binding to the cells, but exhibit a change when internalized into the cells, induced by an interaction between the AuNCs and cells.

Graphical abstract: Specific binding and internalization: an investigation of fluorescent aptamer-gold nanoclusters and cells with fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
16 авг 2018
Accepted
06 окт 2018
First published
08 окт 2018
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Nanoscale, 2018,10, 20453-20461

Specific binding and internalization: an investigation of fluorescent aptamer-gold nanoclusters and cells with fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy

M. Mutas, C. Strelow, T. Kipp and A. Mews, Nanoscale, 2018, 10, 20453 DOI: 10.1039/C8NR06639F

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements