@article{Sarparast2016, 
author = {Morteza Sarparast and Abolhassan Noori and Hoda Ilkhani and S. Zahra Bathaie and Maher F. El-Kady and Lisa J. Wang and Huong Pham and Kristofer L. Marsh and Richard B. Kaner and Mir F. Mousavi},
title = {Cadmium nanoclusters in a protein matrix: Synthesis, characterization, and application in targeted drug delivery and cellular imaging},
year = {2016},
journal = {Nano Research},
volume = {9},
number = {11},
pages = {3229-3246},
keywords = {Cd nanoclusters, hyaluronic acid, targeted drug delivery, fluorescence bioimaging, nanocarrier},
url = {https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.1007/s12274-016-1201-z},
doi = {10.1007/s12274-016-1201-z},
abstract = {Biotemplated metal nanoclusters have garnered much attention owing to their wide range of potential applications in biosensing, bioimaging, catalysis, and nanomedicine. Here, we report the synthesis of stable, biocompatible, water-soluble, and highly fluorescent bovine serum albumin-templated cadmium nanoclusters (CdNCs) through a facile one-pot green method. We covalently conjugated hyaluronic acid (HA) to the CdNCs to form a pH-responsive, tumortargeting theranostic nanocarrier with a sustained release profile for doxorubicin (DOX), a model anticancer drug. The nanocarrier showed a DOX encapsulation efficiency of about 75.6%. DOX release profiles revealed that 74% of DOX was released at pH 5.3, while less than 26% of DOX was released at pH 7.4 within the same 24-h period. The nanocarrier selectively recognized MCF-7 breast cancer cells expressing CD44, a cell surface receptor for HA, whereas no such recognition was observed with HA receptor-negative HEK293 cells. Biocompatibility of the nanocarrier was evaluated through cytotoxicity assays with HEK293 and MCF-7 cells. The nanocarrier exhibited very low to no cytotoxicity, whereas the DOX-loaded nanocarrier showed considerable cellular uptake and enhanced MCF-7 breast cancer cell-killing ability. We also confirmed the feasibility of using the highly fluorescent nanoconjugate for bioimaging of MCF-7 and HeLa cells. The superior targeted drug delivery efficacy, cellular imaging capability, and low cytotoxicity position this nanoconjugate as an exciting new nanoplatform with promising biomedical applications.}
}