Engineering functional nanoparticles for delivery in cells

摘要

The ability of DNA functionalised gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) to detect specific targets in vitro and in vivo has led totheir development as suitable tools for sensing applications. However, endosomal entrapment is a common barrier invarious nanoparticle delivery approaches. In this work, we present a new design strategy with the aim to enhanceendosomal escape of DNA-coated AuNPs via the incorporation of a peptide that has been found to promote effectiveescape within cells. AuNPs are firstly modified with thiol terminated DNA strands followed by further surfacefunctionalisation with cysteine terminated peptides. We show that optimized loading of peptides following DNAnanoparticle functionalisation of nanoparticles is feasible. DNA-peptide-coated AuNP hybrids show similar stabilitytowards degradation by endocellular enzymes and similar specificity towards the detection of specific mRNA targets.