Gene therapy is a rapidly developing DNA-based therapy that promises to provide treatment for oncological and inflammatory diseases. The creation of an effective DNA delivery vector is necessary for effective implementation of gene therapy. The photothermal release of single stranded DNA (ssDNA) from the surface of gold nanoparticles of different shapes and sizes is a promising mode of delivering DNA for gene-therapy applications. Here, we demonstrate the first targeted photothermal release of ssDNA from hollow gold nanospheres (HGNs). The HGNs used demonstrate a tunable localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) while maintaining size consistency. It was shown that HGN 760 and HGN 670 release significant amounts of ssDNA when excited via 785 nm and 640 nm lasers respectively. When excited with a wavelength far from the LSPR of the particles, the ssDNA release is negligible. This study also presents the first use of surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) to analyze the amount of ssDNA released from the surface of gold nanoparticles. As opposed to traditional fluorescence measurements, this SERS based approach provides quantitatively robust data for analysis of ssDNA release and lays a strong foundation for future studies exploiting plasmonically induced ssDNA release. Furthermore, the HGN-based ssDNA system has potential to enable multi-step gene therapy treatments by utilizing different LSPR frequencies that deliver different ssDNA payloads. The DNA system demonstrated here can be applied to <i>in-vitro </i> studies and is expected to successfully release therapeutic DNA for treatment of disease.

Analysis of selective oligonucleotide release from photothermally active hollow gold nanospheres using surface enhanced Raman scattering

249th National Meeting (2015)

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