Intracellular gold

Excluding gold complexes that caimot transverse the membrane such as AuSTm, intracellular gold concentrations must approach equilibrium with extracellular gold concentrations if active transport is not at work. The balance of gold between the environment of a cell and within the cell will depend on the ligands available. 

Gannon, C.J., Patra, C.R., Bhattacharya, R., Mukherjee, P. and Curley, S.A. (2008) Intracellular gold nanopartides enhance non-invasive radioffequency thermal destruction of human gastrointestinal cancer cells. Journal of Nanobiotechnology, 6, 2. 

Under physiological conditions, transfer of Et3PAufrom hemoglobin to albumin has been observed. The transfer is direct and does not require a low-molecular weight thiol such as GSH as an intermediary and indicates that inter-protein transfer of gold can occur spontaneously. The rapid and efficient manner of establishing this equilibrium (for transauration ) could determine many ofthe effects of intracellular and extracellular chemistry of gold. 

Arizti, M.P., Garcia-Orad, A., Sommer, F Silvestro, L, Massiot, P., Chevallier, P., Gutierrez-Zorilla, J.M., Colacio, E., Martinez de Pancorbo, M. andTapiero, H. (1991) Intracellular accumulation and cytotoxic effect of (8-thiotheophyllinate) (triphenylphosphine) gold(l) in Friend leukemia cells. Anticancer Research, 11, 625-628. 

Metallic nanoparticles have been synthesized in vivo using plants. Intracellular synthesis of gold nanopartides was demonstrated using the sweet desert willow (Chilopsis linearis) plant [95]. The average size of Au nanopartides formed in various tissues was dependent on the concentration of Au in the respective tissues. Haver-kamp et al. [96] synthesized a gold-silver-copper alloy in vivo using the Brasskajuncea plant. 

Vassilatis, D.K., Despommier, D., Misek, D.E., Polvere, R.I., Gold, A.M. and Van der Ploeg, L.H.T. (1992) Analysis of a 43-kDa glycoprotein from the intracellular parasitic nematode Trichinella spiralis. Journal of Biological Chemistry 267, 18459-18465. 

Rosi NL, Giljohann DA, Thaxton CS, Lytton-Jean AK, Han MS, Mirkin CA (2006) Oligonucleotide-modified gold nanoparticles for intracellular gene regulation. Science 312 1027-1030... 

Morris, R.E., and Saelinger, C.B. (1984) Visualization of intracellular trafficking use of biotinylated ligands in conjunction with avidin-gold colloids./. Histochem. Cytochem. 32, 124-128. 

Roth J, Bendayan M, Orci L (1978) Ultrastructural localization of intracellular antigens by the use of protein A gold complex. J Histochem Cytochem 26 1074 1081... 

Oddo, S., Caccamo, A., Shepherd, J.D., Murphy, M.P., Golde, T.E., Kayed, R., Metherate, R., Mattson, M.P., Akbari, Y., and LaFerla, F.M., Triple-transgenic model of Alzheimer s disease with plaques and tangles intracellular Abeta and synaptic dysfunction, Neuron, 39, 409, 2003. 

Lectins, or proteins with specific binding sites for carbohydrates, can be used as targeting molecules to localize particular glycoconjugates such as glycoproteins or glycolipids on cell surfaces (Fig. 373). Labeled with gold particles, lectins are important probes for detection of cell surface components and intracellular receptors and in immunological or biochemical assay procedures (Bog-Hansen et al., 1978 Kimura et al., 1979 Nicolson, 1978 Roth, 1983 Benhamou et al., 1988 Nakajima et al., 1988). 

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