Recent Developments in the Use of Glyconanoparticles and Related Quantum Dots for the Detection of Lectins, Viruses, Bacteria and Cancer Cells

Pedro J Hernando,María J Marín,Robert A Field,Simone Dedola

doi:10.3389/fchem.2021.668509

Abstract

Carbohydrate-coated nanoparticles—glyconanoparticles—are finding increased interest as tools in biomedicine. This compilation, mainly covering the past five years, comprises the use of gold, silver and ferrite (magnetic) nanoparticles, silicon-based and cadmium-based quantum dots. Applications in the detection of lectins/protein toxins, viruses and bacteria are covered, as well as advances in detection of cancer cells. The role of the carbohydrate moieties in stabilising nanoparticles and providing selectivity in bioassays is discussed, the issue of cytotoxicity encountered in some systems, especially semiconductor quantum dots, is also considered. Efforts to overcome the latter problem by using other types of nanoparticles, based on gold or silicon, are also presented.

Highlights

The use of nanoparticles (NPs) as biomedical tools has developed at pace in recent years, with NPs functionalised with carbohydrates emerging in diagnostics and cell imaging
The first examples of glyconanoparticles focused on gold, silver, and iron oxide systems
The detection of Cholera toxin (CTB) (Schofield et al, 2007) and the detection of heat-labile enterotoxin B subunit (LTB) from E. coli (Poonthiyil et al, 2015a), both based on galactose-functionalised AuNPs, have been reported

Summary

Introduction

The use of nanoparticles (NPs) as biomedical tools has developed at pace in recent years, with NPs functionalised with carbohydrates (glyconanoparticles) emerging in diagnostics and cell imaging. For certain applications, nanoparticles with larger size present flatter surfaces, enhancing carbohydrate-target interactions (Chien et al, 2008); the shape of the particle (rods vs spheres) can impact on the detection limit of Escherichia coli-glyconanoparticle interactions, for instance (Chaudhary et al, 2015). The detection of Cholera toxin (CTB) (Schofield et al, 2007) and the detection of heat-labile enterotoxin B subunit (LTB) from E. coli (Poonthiyil et al, 2015a), both based on galactose-functionalised AuNPs, have been reported.

Results

Conclusion