Acta Chimica Sinica ›› 2013, Vol. 71 ›› Issue (12): 1607-1610.DOI: 10.6023/A13080904 Previous Articles     Next Articles

Communication

纳米材料在生物分析应用中存在的若干问题

宋延超a, 刘俊秀b, 张阳阳a, 史文a, 马会民a   

  1. a 中国科学院化学研究所 活体分析化学重点实验室 北京 100190;
    b 北京大学第三医院耳鼻咽喉科 北京 100191
  • 投稿日期:2013-08-29 发布日期:2013-09-10
  • 通讯作者: 刘俊秀, 马会民 E-mail:liujunxiusanyuan@sina.com;mahm@iccas.ac.cn
  • 基金资助:

    项目受国家自然科学基金(No. 21321003)、973计划(2011CB935800,2010CB933502)和中国科学院资助.

Some Problems of Nanomaterials in Bioanalytical Applications

Song Yanchaoa, Liu Junxiub, Zhang Yangyanga, Shi Wena, Ma Huimina   

  1. a Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Living Biosystems, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190;
    b Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing 100191
  • Received:2013-08-29 Published:2013-09-10
  • Supported by:

    Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21321003), the 973 Program (2011CB935800, and 2010CB933502) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

By taking the three commonly used CdTe quantum dots (CdTe QDs), Au nanoparticles (Au NPs) and carbon nanodots (C-dots) as example, we have demonstrated and summarized some noteworthy problems of nanomaterials in bioanalytical applications. These problems mainly include the toxicity, microscopic heterogeneity and environmental susceptivity of nanomaterials, which had been separately discussed with different depths but unfortunately are often overlooked in practice. In the present work, a parallel comparative investigation was first made on cytotoxicity, which reveals that CdTe QDs can lead to the decrease of cell metabolic activity, cell shrinkage, and even cell death; Au NPs at a higher concentration (30 μg/mL) decrease the metabolic activity of cells to a small extent; C-dots exert no obvious toxicity to live cells, showing good biocompatibility. These studies indicate that the relative toxicity of the three nanomaterials in their bare forms is CdTe QDs>>AuNPs>C-dots, which is further supported by the inhibition experiment on the growth of green gram sprouts. Second, the microscopic heterogeneity of nanomaterials was compared with that of resorufin (a small molecular fluorescent dye) by cell imaging experiments, which clearly shows that the distribution of nanomaterials in cells is much less uniform than that of small molecular probes. Besides, the heterogeneity of both size distribution and surface modification/property of nanomaterials is also unavoidable. Third, the environmental susceptivity of nanomaterials was studied, and the results showed that spectroscopic properties of the above three nanomaterials are all sensitive to the pH change of solution. Moreover, AuNPs are also rather susceptible to the ionic strength of solution. The above three problems should arouse high attention of researchers in some bioanalyses. In addition, the measures that we suggested in the paper may be helpful to solve these problems to some extent.

Key words: nanomaterials, CdTe quantum dots, Au nanoparticles, carbon nanodots, toxicity, microscopic heterogeneity, environmental susceptivity, bioanalysis