Work

Surface modified gold nanowires for mammalian cell transfection

Year: 2007

Type: article

Abstract: Aminothiol modified gold nanowires have been used as vectors for the delivery of plasmid DNA into two different types of mammalian cells: 3T3 and HeLa. It was measured that positively charged gold nanowires with a diameter of 200 nm and a length around 5 µm were capable of carrying 1 pg of plasmid DNA per nanowire into cells. Compared with other transfection reagents, the gold nanowires exhibited the highest transfection efficiency while almost no cytotoxicity was observed. In addition, it has been shown that individual nanowires can be visualized with sub-micrometer resolution, which may allow the use of functionalized multi-segment nanowires as local probes for the investigation of the microenvironment inside cells.

Source: Nanotechnology

DOI: 10.1088/0957-4484/19/02/025103

Authors: Chiung-Wen Kuo, Jun-Jung Lai, Kung Hwa Wei, Peilin Chen

Institutions: National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Research Center for Applied Science, Academia Sinica, Academia Sinica

Language: English

Topic: RNA Interference and Gene Delivery

Subfield: Molecular Biology

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Domain: Life Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: bronze

Funders: National Science Council, Academia Sinica