Surface-modified gold nanoshells for enhanced cellular uptake

Gold nanoshells have shown a great potential for use as agents in a wide variety of biomedical applications, and some of which require the delivery of large numbers of gold nanoshells onto or into the cells. Here, we develop a ready method to enhance the cellular uptake of gold nanoshells by modifying with meso-2,3-dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA). The quantifiable technique of inductively coupled plasma atomic emissions spectroscopy (ICP-AES) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to investigate the cellular uptake of unmodified and DMSA-modified gold nanoshells. Three cell lines (RAW 264.7, A549, and BEL-7402) were involved and the results indicated that the cellular uptake of the DMSA-modified gold nanoshells was obviously enhanced versus the unmodified gold nanoshells. The reason possibly lies in the nonspecific adsorption of serum protein on the DMSA-modified gold nanoshells (DMSA-GNs), which consequently enhanced the cellular uptake. As a continued effort, in vitro experiments with endocytic inhibitors suggested the DMSA-GNs internalized into cells via receptor-mediated endocytosis (RME) pathway. This study has provided a valuable insight into the effects of surface modification on cellular uptake of nanoparticles.