The glycan receptor is a glycosylphosphatidylinositol glycoprotein that is overexpressed on the surface of various cancer cells and has been utilized for wide applications. In the present work, the surface… Click to show full abstract
The glycan receptor is a glycosylphosphatidylinositol glycoprotein that is overexpressed on the surface of various cancer cells and has been utilized for wide applications. In the present work, the surface of citrate-capped gold nanoparticles (cit-AuNPs) was modified with mercaptopropionic acid (MPA) molecules to provide carboxylic groups for secondary functionalization with amine anchored-silica quantum dots (Si-NH2 QDs) to produce cit-AuNPs-MPA/Si-NH2 QDs fluorescent nanoparticles. Concanavalin A (Con A) molecules were attached through thiol–AuNP bonds to produce the final cit-AuNPs/MPA/Si-NH2 QDs/Con A smart nanoparticles. The synthesized novel cit-AuNPs/MPA/Si-NH2 QDs/Con A nanoparticles were utilized for the bioimaging of glycan-overexpressed breast cancer cells. Fluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry results revealed that the cit-AuNPs/MPA/Si-NH2 QDs/Con A NPs can be efficiently taken up by cancer cells, with differentiating ability between overexpressed cancer cells and low-expressed normal cells. The cellular viability of the cit-AuNPs/MPA/Si-NH2 QDs/Con A NPs was tested by the MTT test, proving their biocompatible nature at the 200 μg mL−1 level. In conclusion, the fabricated cit-AuNPs/MPA/Si-NH2 QDs/Con A NPs could be utilized for the bioimaging of MCF-7 cancer cells even in the clinical setting after proper in vivo validation.
               
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