Wednesday, 19th April 2006 (4495 views)

Gold nanoparticles are becoming increasingly important as possible constituents in cancer therapies.

Now researchers at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, led by Vincent Rotello, Ph.D., have discovered a new way of using the precious metal to transport DNA into the cell nucleus, azonano.com reports.

Following on from research showing that DNA bonds strongly to gold nanoparticles, the scientists modified gold particles with a positively-charged molecule containing a light-sensitive chemical bond.

This results in DNA binding to it strongly, while shining a special kind of light at them causes the chemical bond to break. A molecular fragment is then released that takes away the positive charge and the negative DNA molecules are repelled.

This is a possible method of delivering DNA to certain cell nuclei because the released DNA is fully functional after the process occurs.

Meanwhile, various other techniques for binding DNA to gold nanoparticles are being investigated by scientists.

Researchers in Canada recently managed to produce specific, periodic three-dimensional nanostructures of DNA and gold particles using "rolling circle amplification" – otherwise known as the "hula hoop" technique.

Dr Rotello's work has been published in the Angewandte Chemie International journal.

 

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