A conjugated aptamer and oligonucleotides-stabilized gold nanoclusters nanoplatform for targeted fluorescent imaging and efficient drug delivery

A facile approach is designed for the configuration of aptamer-gold nanoclusters nanohybrid for dual-modal of targeted fluorescent imaging and efficient drug delivery. Morphological and structural investigations indicate that Apt-C30 @AuNCs with intrinsic fluorescence consists in oligonucleotides dopped with AuNCs with an average diameter of 2–3 nm. Based on cell viability assays, Apt-C30 @AuNCs exhibit good biocompatibility. Considering that chemotherapeutic drugs such as DOX can intercalate into the base pairs of DNA, Apt-C30 @AuNCs is performed to delivery DOX. Results clearly demonstrate that Apt-C30 @AuNCs/DOX can be effectively inhibit the growth of cancer cells growth. Moreover, functionalized with aptamer, Apt-C30 @AuNCs owns the ability to bind specifically to MUC1 protein overexpressed on HeLa cells, and the viability of HeLa cells is quite low after treated with Apt-C30 @AuNCs/DOX. In vitro, fluorescent imaging results demonstrate that Apt-C30 @AuNCs present a significantly increase in the internalization and bioimaging ability, attributing to the biofunctionalization of C30 @AuNCs with aptamer. Apt-C30 @AuNCs could be successfully exploited as nanovehicles for efficient drug delivery and fluorescent agents for cellular staining, which can be used in potential application of image-guided cancer diagnosis and therapy fields.