I am using mercaptobenzonitrile coated gold nanoparticles (MBN-Au) for SERS imaging of living leukocytes and quantification of a drug inside the cells. Until quite recently, the MBN-Au entered the cells without any problem. Now, however, they do not seem to enter the the cells at all. We have assessed the quality of the particles/coating and found nothing wrong with them, which leads us to believe that there might be something wrong with the cellular uptake.
The difference between the successful and failed results have been preparation of cells - previously, cells were prepared and snap-frozen directly. Now, apparently, the lab that prepares the cell cultures for us have started to incubate the cells before freezing.
From where I stand that seems to be a bit of a long shot that the cells stopped taking in MBN-Au because of the incubation - am I wrong? Are there any other possibilities for this mishap?
Dear Mr Nagah,
Thank you for your answer! We have indeed tried with both preparation methods, so it seems that cell preparation method is what causing the ruckus. Are you aware of any factors that could be disruptive to endocytosis?
Perhaps, the cell preparing lab began to use different buffer? Fully agree with Gaser above: the charge of membrane and the charge of ligands that decorate NP seems to be the key.
Dear Mr Nagah and Beletskiy,
I will look into whether the lab had changed the buffer. The NPs are already functionalized with a oppositely charged SAM. So the problem lies either in the cell preparation method or that something is off with the NPs, i.e. our colloids started to aggregate. Thank you for your contributions!
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Mathematical Sciences
- Graphs