Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 6, 2026
Synthesis of Functionalized 10-nm Polymer-coated Gold Particles for Endothelium Targeting and Drug Delivery
Published on: January 15, 2018
Fine-tuning the antimicrobial profile of biocompatible gold nanoparticles by sequential surface functionalization
Hemant K Daima1, P R Selvakannan, Ravi Shukla
1NanoBiotechnology Research Laboratory, School of Applied Sciences, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Abstract:
Antimicrobial action of nanomaterials is typically assigned to the nanomaterial composition, size and/or shape, whereas influence of complex corona stabilizing the nanoparticle surface is often neglected. We demonstrate sequential surface functionalization of tyrosine-reduced gold nanoparticles (AuNPs(Tyr)) with polyoxometalates (POMs) and lysine to explore controlled chemical functionality-driven antimicrobial activity. Our investigations reveal that highly biocompatible gold nanoparticles can be tuned to be a strong antibacterial agent by fine-tuning their surface properties in a controllable manner. The observation from the antimicrobial studies on a gram negative bacterium Escherichia coli were further validated by investigating the anticancer properties of these step-wise surface-controlled materials against A549 human lung carcinoma cells, which showed a similar toxicity pattern. These studies highlight that the nanomaterial toxicity and biological applicability are strongly governed by their surface corona.
