Nature Communications
Nature Communications
4 years ago

Real-time visualization of clustering and intracellular transport of gold nanoparticles by correlative imaging

Real-time visualization of clustering and intracellular transport of gold nanoparticles by correlative imaging
Mengmeng Liu, Kun Wang, Lihua Wang, Nan Chen, Le Liang, Haiyun Song, Chunhai Fan, Qian Li, Jiang Li, Jiajun Li, Min Lv, Jiye Shi, Ratnesh Lal, Joon Lee
Mechanistic understanding of the endocytosis and intracellular trafficking of nanoparticles is essential for designing smart theranostic carriers. Physico-chemical properties, including size, clustering and surface chemistry of nanoparticles regulate their cellular uptake and transport. Significantly, even single nanoparticles could cluster intracellularly, yet their clustering state and subsequent trafficking are not well understood. Here, we used DNA-decorated gold (fPlas-gold) nanoparticles as a dually emissive fluorescent and plasmonic probe to examine their clustering states and intracellular transport. Evidence from correlative fluorescence and plasmonic imaging shows that endocytosis of fPlas-gold follows multiple pathways. In the early stages of endocytosis, fPlas-gold nanoparticles appear mostly as single particles and they cluster during the vesicular transport and maturation. The speed of encapsulated fPlas-gold transport was critically dependent on the size of clusters but not on the types of organelle such as endosomes and lysosomes. Our results provide key strategies for engineering theranostic nanocarriers for efficient health management.

Publisher URL: http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms15646

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms15646

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