Light-Regulated Release of DNAand Its Delivery to Nuclei by Means of Photolabile Gold Nanoparticles

Gang Han, Chang-Cheng You, Byoung-jin Kim, Rosemary S. Turingan, Neil S. Forbes, Craig T. Martin, & Vincent M. Rotello, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 45, 3165-3169, 2006.

See reports in NCI Nanotech News and Nature Materials

Light and life: A photolabile gold nanoparticle has been constructed to serve as a DNA carrier. UV irradiation causes the reversal of the nanoparticle surface charge, resulting in effective DNA release and reactivation of suppressed DNA transcription in vitro. This effect was also observed in living cells, together with efficient internalization of DNA into the nucleus.

PMID: 16572498 DOI: 10.1002/anie.200600214