Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) demonstrate great promise in biomedical applications due to their plasmonically-enhanced optical properties, which enable the direct observation of individual nanoparticles. When in close proximity, AuNPs plasmonic fields couple together, increasing their scattering cross-section due to the formation of hot spots and improving their imaging utility. By modifying the AuNP surface with different peptides to target the nucleus and/or the cell as a whole, we showed that despite similar levels of cellular uptake, nuclear-targeted AuNPs (NT-AuNPs) display the greatest scattering due to the formation of denser nanoparticle clusters (i.e. increased localization). Using plasmonically-enhanced Rayleigh scattering imaging spectroscopy (PERSIS), we also obtained a dynamic profile of AuNP localization in living cells, indicating that nuclear localization is directly related to the number of nuclear-targeting peptides on the AuNP surface. Increased localization led to increased plasmonic field coupling, resulting in significantly higher scattering intensity. Thus, biochemical targeting of plasmonic nanoparticles to subcellular components is expected to lead to more resolved imaging of cellular processes.1 1 Aioub, M.; Kang, B.; Mackey, M. A.; El-Sayed, M. A. Biological Targeting of Plasmonic Nanoparticles Improves Cellular Imaging Via the Enhanced Scattering in the Aggregates Formed. J. Phys.Chem. Lett. 2014, 5, 2555-2561.

Biological targeting of plasmonic nanoparticles improves cellular imaging via the enhanced scattering in the aggregates formed

249th National Meeting (2015)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.