Nanoparticles in Biomedicine: Delivery and Sensing

This lecture by Dr. Vincent Rotello will present his lab\u27s recent research in the areas of therapeutics and diagnostics using gold nanoparticles

Biosensing using Particle-(Bio)Polymer Sensor Arrays

We have developed sensor arrays containing non-covalent gold nanoparticle-fluorescent polymer assemblies to identify and quantify biological targets in minutes using a platreader platform. These sensors can identify protein targets at nanomolar concentrations in both buffer and human serum, and to differentiate between species and even different strains of bacteria. In more recent studies we have demonstrated that these sensor systems can discriminate between isogenic healthy, cancerous and metastatic cells

Selectivity and specificity: pros and cons in sensing

Sensing using specific and selective receptors provides two very different but complementary strategies. This Sensor Issues article will discuss the merits and challenges of specific sensors, and selective sensors based on synthetic arrays. We will examine where each has been successfully applied to a sensing challenge, and then look at how a combined approach could take elements of both to provide new sensor platforms

Synthesis and Characterization of Naphthalenediimide-Functionalized Flavin Derivatives

Two acceptor–acceptor dyads have been synthesized featuring a flavin moiety and a naphthalenediimide (NDI) unit. The NDI unit is linked to the flavin through a short spacer group via either the N(3) or N(10) positions of the flavin. We have investigated the UV-Vis and redox properties of these multi-electron accepting systems which indicate that these materials display the collective properties of their component systems. Fluorescence spectroscopy measurements have revealed that their emission properties are dominated by the flavin unit

Array-Based Detection of Persistent Organic Pollutants via Cyclodextrin Promoted Energy Transfer

We report herein the selective array-based detection of 30 persistent organic pollutants via cyclodextrin-promoted energy transfer. The use of three fluorophores enabled the development of an array that classified 30 analytes with 100% accuracy and identified unknown analytes with 96% accuracy, as well as identifying 92% of analytes in urine

Biochemical and biomechanical drivers of cancer cell metastasis, drug response and nanomedicine

Metastasis, drug resistance and recurrence in cancer are regulated by the tumor microenvironment. This review describes recent advances in understanding how cancel cells respond to extracellular environmental cues via integrins, how to build engineered microenvironments to study these interactions in vitro and how nanomaterials can be used to detect and target tumor microenvironments

Engineering the Interface between Inorganic Nanoparticles and Biological Systems through Ligand Design

Nanoparticles (NPs) provide multipurpose platforms for a wide range of biological applications. These applications are enabled through molecular design of surface coverages, modulating NP interactions with biosystems. In this review, we highlight approaches to functionalize nanoparticles with “small” organic ligands (Mw \u3c 1000), providing insight into how organic synthesis can be used to engineer NPs for nanobiology and nanomedicine

Correction: Zainalabdeen, N., et al., Synthesis and Characterization of Naphthalenediimide-Functionalized Flavin Derivatives. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2013, 14, 7468–7479.

Note: In lieu of an abstract, this is an excerpt from the first page. In the original version of the manuscript [1] some of the analytical data for compounds 1 and 2 were incorrect. The correct NMR data are presented below. The authors apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused to the readers of this journal. Compound 1: 1H NMR (500 MHz, DMSO-d6) δ 11.64 (s, 1H), 8.73 (s, 4H), 8.57 (d, J = 1.4 Hz, 1H), 8.16 (dd, J = 8.9, 1.4 Hz, 1H), 7.81 (d, J = 8.5 Hz, 2H), 7.64 (d, J = 8.5 Hz, 2H), 6.99 (d, J = 8.9 Hz, 1H), 4.08 (t, J = 7.0 Hz, 2H), 3.28 (m, 2H), 1.69 (quin, J = 7.0 Hz, 2H), 1.33 (m, 8H), 0.86 (t, J = 6.8 Hz, 3H). 13C NMR (125 MHz, DMSO-d6) δ 162.6 (2xC = 0), 162.3 (2xC = 0), 158.9, 155.1, 151.9, 140.8, 136.6, 136.1, 135.2, 133.7, 131.1 (2xC), 130.5 (4xC), 130.3 (q, J = 4 Hz), 128.6 (q, J = 4 Hz), 128.4 (2xC), 126.6, 126.5 (2xC), 126.4 (q, J = 31 Hz), 126.3 (2xC), 126.2, 123.2 (q, J = 271 Hz), 117.8, 39.9, 30.9, 28.5, 28.3, 27.1, 26.3, 21.9, 13.7. Compound 2: 1H NMR (500 MHz, CDCl3) δ 8.77 (s, 4H), 8.58 (d, J = 1.4 Hz, 1H), 8.03 (dd, J = 9.1, 1.4 Hz, 1H), 7.87 (d, J = 8.4 Hz, 2H), 7.76 (d, J = 9.1 Hz, 1H), 7.27 (d, J = 8.4 Hz, 2H), 5.37 (s, 2H), 4.61 (br s, 2H), 4.19 (t, 2H), 2.47 (sept, J = 6.7 Hz, 1H), 1.74 (m, 2H), 1.47–1.23 (m, 10H), 1.07 (d, J = 6.7 Hz, 6H), 0.87 (t, J = 6.9 Hz, 3H). 13C NMR (125 MHz, CDCl3) δ 163.1 (2xC = O), 162.9 (2xC = O), 159.0, 155.0, 149.9, 138.9, 137.5, 135.2, 134.9, 134.3, 131.7 (2xC), 131.5 (2xC), 131.2 (q, J = 4 Hz), 131.1 (4xC), 130.9 (q, J = 4 Hz), 128.6 (2xC), 127.1 (2xC), 127.0 (q, J = 28 Hz), 126.8 (2xC), 123.1 (q, J = 270 Hz), 116.9, 51.5, 44.9, 41.2, 31.9, 29.4, 29.3, 28.2, 27.6, 27.2, 22.8, 20.2 (2xC), 14.2

Biomacromolecular stereostructure mediates mode hybridization in chiral plasmonic nanostructures

The refractive index sensitivity of plasmonic fields has been exploited for over 20 years in analytical technologies. While this sensitivity can be used to achieve attomole detection levels, they are in essence binary measurements that sense the presence/absence of a predetermined analyte. Using plasmonic fields, not to sense effective refractive indices but to provide more “granular” information about the structural characteristics of a medium, provides a more information rich output, which affords opportunities to create new powerful and flexible sensing technologies not limited by the need to synthesize chemical recognition elements. Here we report a new plasmonic phenomenon that is sensitive to the biomacromolecular structure without relying on measuring effective refractive indices. Chiral biomaterials mediate the hybridization of electric and magnetic modes of a chiral solid-inverse plasmonic structure, resulting in a measurable change in both reflectivity and chiroptical properties. The phenomenon originates from the electric-dipole–magnetic-dipole response of the biomaterial and is hence sensitive to biomacromolecular secondary structure providing unique fingerprints of α-helical, β-sheet, and disordered motifs. The phenomenon can be observed for subchiral plasmonic fields (i.e., fields with a lower chiral asymmetry than circularly polarized light) hence lifting constraints to engineer structures that produce fields with enhanced chirality, thus providing greater flexibility in nanostructure design. To demonstrate the efficacy of the phenomenon, we have detected and characterized picogram quantities of simple model helical biopolymers and more complex real proteins

Microwave-Induced Chemotoxicity of Polydopamine-Coated Magnetic Nanocubes

Polydopamine-coated FeCo nanocubes (PDFCs) were successfully synthesized and tested under microwave irradiation of 2.45 GHz frequency and 0.86 W/cm2 power. These particles were found to be non-toxic in the absence of irradiation, but gained significant toxicity upon irradiation. Interestingly, no increase in relative heating rate was observed when the PDFCs were irradiated in solution, eliminating nanoparticle (NP)-induced thermal ablation as the source of toxicity. Based on these studies, we propose that microwave-induced redox processes generate the observed toxicity