Recent Progresses of Fluorescent Gold Nanoclusters in Biomedical Applications

Abstract

Water-soluble fluorescent gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) have recently become one of the promising nanomaterials in biomedicine. Benefiting from their promising revolves around the broad versatility and biocompatibility, as well as unique physicochemical properties of high stability in biological media and excellent photostability, functionalized AuNCs have shown great potential in a broad range of biomedical applications, including cell and virus tracking, pathogen detection, bioimaging, drug delivery and theranostics. Here the advantages and drawbacks of fluorescent AuNCs in biomedical applications are discussed. Perhaps the most promising route is the co-engineering of AuNCs and functionalized molecules in synergistic conjugates, which might integrate the advantages of AuNCs and tagged molecules, and compensate the weaknesses of each other to meet the requirements for clinical application.

Different Effects of His‐Au NCs and MES‐Au NCs on the Propagation of Pseudorabies Virus

“…Second, Au NCs rather than Au NPs exhibit fluorescence in the visible to near‐infrared (NIR) region. Water‐soluble Au NCs have attracted increasing attention due to their excellent fluorescent properties, good biocompatibility, and well‐functionalized structure . Moreover, the synthetic methods of Au NCs are characterized by simplicity and diversity.…”

Promotion of SH-SY5Y Cell Growth by Gold Nanoparticles Modified with 6-Mercaptopurine and a Neuron-Penetrating Peptide

“…Among the existing biomaterials, gold nanomaterials are used in a wide range of biological applications including sensing, labeling, drug delivery, and imaging, due to their ease of synthesis, convenience for surface functionalization, low toxicity, good stabilization, and biocompatibility [ 7 , 8 ]. For example, a previous study reported that gold nanorods associated with low-power laser exposure stimulated the increase of neurite length up to 25 μm of NG108-15 neuronal cells compared with the control [ 9 ].…”

Flexible fluorescent films based on quantum dots (QDs) and natural rubber

“…Particularly, the special spectroscopic properties and broad applications, cadmium telluride‐QDs (CdTe‐QD) are one of the most relevant semiconductors nanoparticles described to date and are being extensively used for producing solar cells, optoelectronic devices, and biological applications . When compared with organic fluorophores, QD exhibits important advantages; these include narrow emission spectra and ‘‘tuneable’’ spectroscopic properties due to the capability of QD to generate multicolor fluorescence with a single excitation wavelength, high quantum yields, and photochemical stability . These properties stimulated commercial applications of QDs in display and surpasses that of the electronic displays based on organic light‐emitting diodes .…”

“…[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] When compared with organic fluorophores, QD exhibits important advantages; these include narrow emission spectra and ''tuneable'' spectroscopic properties due to the capability of QD to generate multicolor fluorescence with a single excitation wavelength, high quantum yields, and photochemical stability. [12][13][14][15][16] These properties stimulated commercial applications of QDs in display and surpasses that of the electronic displays based on organic light-emitting diodes. 4,6,[16][17][18][19][20][21][22] In this sense, application nanocrystals in sensors, optoelectronic devices, and solar cells requires stabilization of QDs in solid state and the most common method to stabilize QDs in the form of colloids into solid state is by mixing QDs with polymers matrices.…”

“…4,9,17,20,21,26 On the other hand, flexible materials with QDs is a new emerging field, especially in shape, conforming systems such as portable energy-harvesting devices, electronic skin, and wearable electronic devices, which need high flexibility and stretchability. 12,13,23,[27][28][29] Natural rubber (NR) mainly obtained from natural latex of the Hevea brasiliensis tree, is a renewable polymer with unique optical and mechanical properties, which consists of poly-1,4-cisisoprene linked units 35,36 and could be an alternative of natural origin for the manufacture of optoelectronic devices or hybrid materials with optical properties, this is the first time to propose that these polymers could be doped with QDs to fabricate flexible fluorescent films, using the unique optical properties of QDs and offer potential applications in the optical field for this new material based on QDs and NR.…”