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Simultaneous gene delivery and tracking through preparation of photo-luminescent nanoparticles based on graphene quantum dots and chimeric peptides

Moasses Ghafary, S ; Sharif University of Technology

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  1. Type of Document: Article
  2. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-09890-y
  3. Abstract:
  4. Designing suitable nano-carriers for simultaneous gene delivery and tracking is in the research priorities of the molecular medicine. Non-toxic graphene quantum dots (GQDs) with two different (green and red) emission colors are synthesized by Hummer's method and characterized by UV-Vis, Photoluminescence (PL), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) and Raman spectroscopies, Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). The GQDs are conjugated with MPG-2H1 chimeric peptide and plasmid DNA (pDNA) by non-covalent interactions. Following conjugation, the average diameter of the prepared GQDs increased from 80 nm to 280 nm in complex structure, and the ζ-potential of the complex increased (from-36.87 to-2.56 mV). High transfection efficiency of the nano-carrier and results of confocal microscopy demonstrated that our construct can be considered as a nontoxic carrier with dual functions for gene delivery and nuclear targeting. © 2017 The Author(s)
  5. Keywords:
  7. Source: Scientific Reports ; Volume 7, Issue 1 , 2017 ; 20452322 (ISSN)
  8. URL: http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-09890-y