Biomedical Applications for Gold Nanoclusters: Recent Developments and Future Perspectives

Navdeep Kaur,Tsung-Rong Kuo,Arshdeep Singh,Robby Nur Aditya

doi:10.1186/s11671-018-2725-9

Abstract

Gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) have been extensively applied as a fluorescent probe for biomedical applications in imaging, detection, and therapy due to their unique chemical and physical properties. Fluorescent probes of AuNCs have exhibited high compatibility, superior photostablility, and excellent water solubility which resulted in remarkable biomedical applications for long-term imaging, high-sensitivity detection, and target-specific treatment. Recently, great efforts have been made in the developments of AuNCs as the fluorescent probes for various biomedical applications. In this review, we have collected fluorescent AuNCs prepared by different ligands, including small molecules, polymers, and biomacromolecules, and highlighted current achievements of AuNCs in biomedical applications for imaging, detection, and therapy. According to these advances, we further provided conclusions of present challenges and future perspectives of AuNCs for fundamental investigations and practical biomedical applications.

Highlights

Recent biomedical applications have revealed the significant roles of nanomaterials in the developments of nanoscience and nanotechnology [1–10]
We emphasized on the recent advances for the uses of Gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) conjugated with three types of ligands including small molecules, polymers, and biomacromolecules in the applications for imaging, detection, and therapy
The abovementioned method can be subjugated as a novel method for in vivo self-bio-imaging of tumors. Another trypsin-stabilized gold nanoclusters possessing near-infrared fluorescence were synthesized by Liu et al for dual purposes; one of the applicability includes biosensing of heparin which is built on surface plasmon-enhanced energy transfer (SPEET) and another includes folic acid (FA)-modified try-AuNCs for in vivo cancer fluorescence imaging (Fig. 3)

Summary

Introduction

Recent biomedical applications have revealed the significant roles of nanomaterials in the developments of nanoscience and nanotechnology [1–10]. The intensive developments of AuNCs as fluorescent probes have brought significant impacts in the applications of imaging, detection, and therapy. We emphasized on the recent advances for the uses of AuNCs conjugated with three types of ligands including small molecules, polymers, and biomacromolecules in the applications for imaging, detection, and therapy.

Results

Conclusion