Nanospheres conjugated

There are very many papers in the literature that address some aspect of gold nanospheres. In particular, their plasmon response (see Section 7.3.1.1) has been well studied, as has their agglomeration [50-52] and the manner in which they can be assembled into highly ordered colloidal crystals [50, 53, 54]. The latter are interesting and will be further discussed in Section 7.3.8.2. Conjugation of gold nanospheres with proteins and antibodies, for use as a stain in microscopy [55] or possibly, in medical applications [23], is another rich field. 

Pissuwan, D., Cortie, C.H., Valenzuela, S. and Cortie, M.B. (2007) Gold nanosphere-antibody conjugates for therapeutic applications. Gold Bulletin, 40,... 

KNOB protein, however, was shown to improve gene expression markedly (130-fold in HeLa cells). Additionally, it was shown that PEG could be conjugated to the surface of the nanospheres to prevent aggregation during lyophilization without a loss of bioactivity following one month in storage. The PEGylated particles, however, were cleared from mice at a slower rate than unmodified controls and were found to accumulate in the kidney and liver at 15 min after intravenous administration. There was no difference after one hour, however. 

FIGURE 30.5 Nano- and microparticulate drug carrier systems, (a) Microsphere, (b) microcapsule, (c) surface modified nanoparticles, (d) nanosphere, (e) nanocapsule, and (f) surface modified targeting molecules conjugated nanoparticles. 

Pu, K.-Y. Li, K. Shi, J. Liu, B. Fluorescent single-molecular core-shell nanospheres of hyperbranched conjugated polyelectrolyte for live-cell imaging. Chem. Mater. 2009, 16, 3816-3822. 

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