bc5005284_si_001.pdf (618.71 kB)
Fine-Tuned H‑Ferritin Nanocage with Multiple Gold Clusters as Near-Infrared Kidney Specific Targeting Nanoprobe
journal contribution
posted on 2015-02-18, 00:00 authored by Cuiji Sun, Yi Yuan, Zhonghe Xu, Tianjiao Ji, Yanhua Tian, Shan Wu, Jianlin Lei, Jingyuan Li, Ning Gao, Guangjun NieWhen stabilized and functionalized
by biomolecules, noble metal
(such as gold and silver) cluster-based hybrid nanocomposites have
shown great promise for biomedical applications, due to their unique
physiochemical properties originating from the inorganic elements
and specific functionality and biocompatibility from their biological
components. Although certain promise for bioimaging, biosensing, and
biomimetic catalysis has been demonstrated, it is still a great challenge
to integrate the defined functionality of the biomolecules with enhanced
or novel physiochemical properties of the metal clusters, under control
at the molecular level. Herein, based on molecular dynamics simulation
of a gold (Au) cluster assembly, we designed near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent
hybrid nanocomposites with multiple Au clusters within an apo H-ferritin
(HFt) nanocage. The fluorescence quantum yield of near-infrared (NIR)
Au-HFt is about 63.4% and the emission peak is 810 nm. The NIR Au-HFt
is one of the first native protein-guided Au cluster-based nanomaterials
for in vivo biowindow imaging. In vivo fluorescent imaging and quantification
of Au element confirmed that Au-HFt not only retained the kidney targeting
properties of HFt well (about 10 times higher Au concentration in
kidney than in liver and spleen, the most common organs for nanoparticle
accumulation), but also gained strong NIR imaging capability for live
animals. The NIR Au-HFt showed powerful tissue penetrating ability,
strong fluorescent efficiency, and excellent kidney targeting specificity.
These results thus open new opportunities for kidney disease imaging
and theranostic applications.