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Near‐Infrared Photothermally Activated DNAzyme–Gold Nanoshells for Imaging Metal Ions in Living Cells
Author(s) -
Wang Wenjing,
Satyavolu Nitya Sai Reddy,
Wu Zhenkun,
Zhang JianRong,
Zhu JunJie,
Lu Yi
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
angewandte chemie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1521-3757
pISSN - 0044-8249
DOI - 10.1002/ange.201701325
Subject(s) - deoxyribozyme , fluorophore , photothermal therapy , nanoshell , chemistry , cleavage (geology) , metal ions in aqueous solution , metal , hela , nanotechnology , biophysics , photothermal effect , photochemistry , fluorescence , materials science , dna , nanoparticle , biochemistry , in vitro , optics , organic chemistry , physics , fracture (geology) , composite material , biology
DNAzymes have enjoyed success as metal ion sensors outside cells. Their susceptibility to metal‐dependent cleavage during delivery into cells has limited their intracellular applications. To overcome this limitation, a near‐infrared (NIR) photothermal activation method is presented for controlling DNAzyme activity in living cells. The system consists of a three‐stranded DNAzyme precursor (TSDP), the hybridization of which prevents the DNAzyme from being active. After conjugating the TSDP onto gold nanoshells and upon NIR illumination, the increased temperature dehybridizes the TSDP to release the active DNAzyme, which then carries out metal‐ion‐dependent cleavage, resulting in releasing the cleaved product containing a fluorophore. Using this construct, detecting Zn 2+ in living HeLa cells is demonstrated. This method has expanded the DNAzyme versatility for detecting metal ions in biological systems under NIR light that exhibits lower phototoxicity and higher tissue penetration ability.