Multifunctional nanocomposite clusters enabled by amphiphilic/bioactive natural polysaccharides

Abstract

Multifunctional nanocomposite clusters have great potential in advanced biological applications, which have mainly been realized via synthetic block-copolymers, silica, and small surfactants. Herein we demonstrate for the first time that bioactive nanocomposite clusters with multifunctionality can be achieved by simple ultrasonication treatment of the mixture of amphiphilic/bioactive natural polysaccharides in aqueous media and hydrophobic NPs in organic phase. We observed that this facile approach is generalizable to obtain nanocomposite hybrid clusters with diverse hydrophobic nanoparticles (NPs), such as hydrophobic magnetic NPs (HyM), gold NPs (HyG), quantum dots (HyQ) and the mixture of HyM/HyG or HyM/HyQ. Magneto-fluorescent hybrid clusters (HyM/HyQ) produced from amphiphilic natural polysaccharides can serve as both dual-mode imaging probes for cell tracking and magnetic actuators that can be magnetically maneuvered inside live cells. To check the bioactivity and biocompatibility of the resulting hybrid clusters, the expression level of genes involved in the cell proliferation and apoptosis in cells incubated with the resulting clusters were also explored. It is noteworthy that the clusters show bioactivity without the use of any additional bioactive materials. Our unique approach would open a new avenue for the utilization of amphiphilic/bioactive natural polysaccharides and provide fresh impetus for the development of novel multifunctional hybrid clusters.