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Monodisperse Au/aminosilica composite nanospheres: Facile one-step synthesis and their applications in gene transfection

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Abstract

In this study, Au/aminosilica composite nanospheres have been synthesized via a simple one-pot route using HAuCl4 and N-(3-trimethoxysilylpropyl)-ethylenediamine as starting materials. Scanning electron microscopy results show that these spheres are with diameters of about 300 nm. The obtained Au/aminosilica nanospheres were used as nonviral carriers for gene delivery. Compared with commercial Lipofectamine 2000, the Au/aminosilica nanospheres are with higher transfection efficiency and lower cytotoxicity. Furthermore, the nanospheres are biocompatible, which may find applications in gene delivery and drug carrier.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (2011CB933700), the 100 Talents program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (20971118).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Nanomaterials and Chemistry, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Lei Wang, Zhouhao Xing, Wengang Qu & Anwu Xu

  2. Department of Vascular Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, 510080, China

    Tuckyun Cheang, Shenming Wang & Zuojun Hu

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  1. Lei Wang
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  2. Tuckyun Cheang
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  7. Anwu Xu
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Correspondence to Anwu Xu.

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Wang, L., Cheang, T., Wang, S. et al. Monodisperse Au/aminosilica composite nanospheres: Facile one-step synthesis and their applications in gene transfection. Journal of Materials Research 27, 2425–2430 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2012.218

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