showing 4 related works from this author
Gold nanostars coated with neutral and charged polyethylene glycols: A comparative study of in-vitro biocompatibility and of their interaction with S…
2015
Gold nanostars (GNS) have been coated with four different polyethylene glycols (PEGs) equipped with a -SH function for grafting on the gold surface. These PEGs have different chain lengths with average MW = 2000, 3000, 5000 and average number of -O-CH2-CH2 - units 44, 66, and 111, respectively. Two are neutral and two are terminated with -COOH and -NH2 functions, thus bearing negative and positive charges at physiological pH, thanks to the formation of carboxylate and ammonium groups. The negative charge of the GNS coated with PEG carboxylate has also been exploited to further coat the GNS with the PAH (polyallylamine hydrochloride) cationic polymer. Vitality tests have been carried out on …
Amphiphilic Copolymers Based on Poly[(hydroxyethyl)-d,l-aspartamide]: A Suitable Functional Coating for Biocompatible Gold Nanostars
2013
Novel amphiphilic copolymers have been synthesized based on a biocompatible poly(hydroxyethylaspartamide) (PHEA) backbone, bearing both anchoring groups for gold nanoparticles, such as thiols and disulfide, and conjugable moieties, such as amino groups, the latter as points suitable for appending further functional agents. The strategy was to functionalize α,β-poly[(N-2- hydroxyethyl)-d,l-aspartamide] (PHEA) with PEG2000-NH2 and with ethylenediamine (EDA) obtaining a partially pegylated copolymer with a large number of pendant primary amino groups. A fraction of the latter was conjugated with molecules bearing terminal thiol moieties such as 12-mercaptododecanoic acid (MDA) and disulfide gr…
Thermal and Chemical Stability of Thiol Bonding on Gold Nanostars
2015
The stability of thiol bonding on the surface of star-shaped gold nanoparticles was studied as a function of temperature in water and in a set of biologically relevant conditions. The stability was evaluated by monitoring the release of a model fluorescent dye, Bodipy-thiol (BDP-SH), from gold nanostars (GNSs) cocoated with poly(ethylene glycol) thiol (PEG-SH). The increase in the BDP-SH fluorescence emission, quenched when bound to the GNSs, was exploited to this purpose. A maximum 15% dye release in aqueous solution was found when the bulk temperature of gold nanostars solutions was increased to T = 42 °C, the maximum physiological temperature. This fraction reduces 3-5% for temperatures …
In Vitro–In Vivo Fluctuation Spectroscopies
2010
Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) was first developed for biophysical studies in analogy with photon scattering correlation spectroscopy. Although it is mainly devoted to the study of freely diffusing particles, FCS is actually able to discern between different kinds of motions, such as diffusion, anomalous diffusion, or drift motions. The frontier application of FCS nowadays is in medical studies both within cells and on the cell membranes, and in the investigation of single molecules in solid matrices. In this field, FCS originated also image correlation spectroscopy methods. The whole field can be unified under the name of fluorescence fluctuation spectroscopy (FFS). We present…