Construction of Bio/Nanointerfaces: Stable Gold Nanoparticle Bioconjugates in Complex Systems

The real application of DNA-functionalized gold nanoparticles (DNA-Au NPs) was limited by decreased stability and irreversible aggregation in high-ionic strength solutions and complex systems. Therefore, exploring a kind of DNA-Au NPs with excellent stability in high-ionic strength solutions and complex systems is challenging and significant. Herein, a novel universal bioconjugate strategy for constructing ultrastable DNA-Au NPs was designed based on the combination of polydopamine (PDA) shell and DNA linker. The obtained DNA-linked Au@polydopamine nanoparticles (DNA-Au@PDA NPs) showed colloidal stability in high-ionic strength solution and complex systems (such as human serum and cell culture supernatant). Moreover, the nanoparticles still maintained good dispersion after multiple freeze-thaw cycles. The high stability of DNA-Au@PDA NPs may be attributed to increasing the electrostatic and steric repulsions among nanoparticles through the effect of both PDA shell and DNA linker on Au@PDA NPs. For investigating the application of such nanoparticles, a highly sensitive assay for miRNA 141 detection was developed using DNA-Au@PDA NPs coupled with dynamic light scattering (DLS). Comparing with the regular DNA-Au NPs, DNA-Au@PDA NPs could detect as low as 50 pM miRNA 141 even in human whole serum. Taken together, the features of Bio/Nanointerface make the nanoparticle suitable for various applications in harsh biological and environmental conditions due to the stability. This work may provide a universal modification method for obtaining stable nanoparticles.