ORCID Profile
0000-0002-4113-1862
Current Organisations
UNSW Sydney
,
NANOSOILS BIO Pty Ltd
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Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)
Date: 16-02-2021
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2017
DOI: 10.1016/J.BIOS.2015.12.031
Abstract: This study introduces the double-ligands stabilizing gold nanoclusters and the fabrication of gold nanocluster/graphene nanocomplex as a "turn-on" fluorescent probe for the detection of cancer-related enzyme matrix metalloproteinase-9. A facile, one-step approach was developed for the synthesis of fluorescent gold nanoclusters using peptides and mercaptoundecanoic acid as co-templating ligands. The peptide was designed to possess a metalloproteinase-9 cleavage site and to act not only as a stabilizer but also as a targeting ligand for the enzyme detection. The prepared gold nanoclusters show an intense red fluorescence with a broad adsorption spectrum. In the presence of the enzyme, due to the excellent quenching properties and the negligible background of graphene oxide, the developed peptide-gold nanocluster/graphene nanocomplex yielded an intense "turn-on" fluorescent response, which strongly correlated with the enzyme concentration. The limit of detection of the nanocomplex was 0.15nM. The sensor was successfully applied for "turn-on" detection of metalloproteinase-9 secreted from human breast adenocarcinoma MCF-7 cells with high sensitivity, selectivity, significant improvement in terms of detection time and simplicity.
Publisher: American Scientific Publishers
Date: 10-2015
Abstract: This study introduces the facile fabrication of a bimodal nanohybrid for the luminescent ON/OFF detection of glutathione. The proposed nanosensor consists of magnetic (Fe 3 O 4 ) and upconversion nanoparticles (UCP) co-encapsulated in a silica matrix, and decorated with gold nanoparticle (AuNP) as a luminescent quencher. The detection mechanism is based on the Luminescent Resonance Energy Transfer (LRET) between the donor (UCP) and the acceptor (AuNP) with the help of a disulfide bond as a bridging element. In the presence of glutathione, the disulfide bridges between AuNPs and Fe 3 O 4 /UCP@SiO 2 was cleaved and the amount of glutathione could be traced by the restored luminescence (ON state) of the nanohybrids after magnetic separation.
Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)
Date: 2022
DOI: 10.1039/D1CS00707F
Abstract: Targeted drug delivery in cancer typically focuses on maximising the endocytosis of drugs into the diseased cells. However, there has been less focus on exploiting the differences in the endocytosis pathways of cancer cells
Publisher: European Respiratory Society (ERS)
Date: 02-05-2014
Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)
Date: 25-02-2014
DOI: 10.1021/JA411034Q
Abstract: A subnanometer gap-separated linear chain gold nanoparticle (AuNP) silica nanotube peapod (SNTP) was fabricated by self-assembly. The geometrical configurations of the AuNPs inside the SNTPs were managed in order to pose either a single-line or a double-line nanostructure by controlling the diameters of the AuNPs and the orifice in the silica nanotubes (SNTs). The AuNPs were internalized and self-assembled linearly inside the SNTs by capillary force using a repeated wet-dry process on a rocking plate. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images clearly indicated that numerous nanogap junctions with sub-1-nm distances were formed among AuNPs inside SNTs. Finite-dimension time domain (FDTD) calculations were performed to estimate the electric field enhancements. Polarization-dependent surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectra of bifunctional aromatic linker p-mercaptobenzoic acid (p-MBA)-coated AuNP-embedded SNTs supported the linearly aligned nanogaps. We could demonstrate a silica wall-protected nanopeapod sensor with single nanotube sensitivity. SNTPs have potential application to intracellular pH sensors after endocytosis in mammalian cells for practical purposes. The TEM images indicated that the nanogaps were preserved inside the cellular constituents. SNTPs exhibited superior quality SERS spectra in vivo due to well-sustained nanogap junctions inside the SNTs, when compared to simply using AuNPs without any silica encapsulation. By using these SNTPs, a robust intracellular optical pH sensor could be developed with the advantage of the sustained nanogaps, due to silica wall-protection.
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 05-09-2013
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 30-05-2021
Abstract: Macropinocytosis is a consequence of oncogenic alterations of cancer cells while most healthy cells are non‐macropinocytic. It is currently unclear whether macropinocytic cancer cells can be targeted rather than healthy cells, by adjusting the shape and size of nanoparticles. Herein, the endocytosis of two differently shaped nanoparticles nanorods and nanospheres are compared in cancer and healthy cells. The cells are breast epithelial cancer cells (MCF7) and breast epithelial healthy cells (MCF10A) and pancreas cancer cells (PANC‐1 cells) and non‐tumourogenic patient‐derived cancer‐associated fibroblasts (CAFs). The endocytosis pathway is quantified by a combination of pair correlation microscopy and endocytosis inhibitors. MCF7 cells use clathrin‐mediated endocytosis and macropinocytosis to take up the nanorods while MCF10A cells use predominantly clathrin‐mediated endocytosis. Based on the comparison of endocytic behavior of cancer and healthy cells, MCF7 cells can be induced to take up more nanorods and suppress the metabolism and endocytosis of nanorods in MCF10A cells. The nanorods allow targeting to breast cancer MCF7 cells and pancreas cancer cells over the healthy cells. This study opens exciting possibilities for shape to target the cancer cells over healthy cells, by adjusting nanoparticle shape.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2014
DOI: 10.1016/J.BIOS.2013.09.011
Abstract: Upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs), which are excited at near-infrared wavelength (980 nm), emit high-energy photons. Since UCNPs display a high signal-to-noise ratio and no photobleaching, they are extremely useful for diagnostic application. In this study, we applied UCNPs for detecting the IS6110 sequence of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) and evaluated the feasibility of the system for use in molecular diagnostics. Using biotinylated primers, IS6110 DNA PCR was performed and the PCR licon was then mixed with streptavidin-conjugated UCNPs, followed by intercalation with SYTOX Orange dye. Fluorescence detection for the Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) of the UCNPs (UCNP-FRET) was then performed. The estimated lowest detection by UCNP-FRET was 10(2) copies/μL of IS6110 DNA (157 bp). The kappa agreement of the UCNP-FRET assay with conventional PCR was 0.8464 (95% confidence interval, 0.7442-0.9486) and false-negative results were reduced. Our results demonstrated the successful implementation of the UCNP-FRET system in detecting the IS6110 sequence of the MTBC and its potential application for molecular diagnostics.
Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)
Date: 2017
DOI: 10.1039/C7CC01229B
Abstract: Silica-encapsulated gold nanoparticle dimers were self-assembled through a single-insertion process using capillary force and can be utilized as an advanced drug-delivery and sensing platform for organelle-targeting in cancer cells.
Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)
Date: 2021
DOI: 10.1039/D1SC04656J
Abstract: It was recently shown that it is possible to exploit the nanoparticle shape to selectively target endocytosis pathways found in cancer and not healthy cells.
Publisher: IOP Publishing
Date: 31-08-2016
DOI: 10.1088/0957-4484/27/40/405101
Abstract: Upcoversion nanoparticles are an emerging luminescent nanomaterial with excellent photophysical properties that have great benefits in biological sensing. In this study, a luminescent turn-on biosensor for cell-secreted protease activity assay is established based on resonance energy transfer in an upconversion nanoparticle-graphene oxide nano-assembly. The proposed biosensor consists of a blue-emitting upconversion nanoparticle covered with a quenching complex, comprising gelatin as the proteinase substrate and graphene oxide nanosheets as luminescence acceptors. After enzymatic digestion, the upconversion nanoparticles lose the gelatin cover due to the disassembly of the quenching complex, thus the upconverting luminescence in the blue region is restored (a turn-on response). The recovered upconverting luminescence is proportional to the protease concentration the limit of detection was 12 ng ml(-1). Finally, the upconversion-graphene oxide nanocomplex was successfully applied in the detection of cell-secreted protease-metalloproteinase in MCF-7 cancer cells with high sensitivity and specificity.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 02-09-2018
DOI: 10.1080/17425247.2018.1517748
Abstract: Interest in mesoporous silica nanoparticles for drug delivery has resulted in a good understanding of the impact of size and surface chemistry of these nanoparticles on their performance as drug carriers. Shape has emerged as an additional factor that can have a significant effect on delivery efficacy. Rod-shaped mesoporous silica nanoparticles show improvements in drug delivery relative to spherical mesoporous silica nanoparticles. This review summarises the synthesis methods for producing rod-shaped mesoporous silica nanoparticles for use in nanomedicine. The second part covers recent progress of mesoporous silica nanorods by comparing the impact of sphere and rod-shape on drug delivery efficiency. As hollow mesoporous silica nanorods are capable of higher drug loads than most other drug delivery vehicles, such particles will reduce the amount of mesoporous silica in the body for efficient therapy. However, the importance of nanoparticle shape on drug delivery efficiency is not well understood for mesoporous silica. Studies that visualize and quantify the uptake pathway of mesoporous silica nanorods in specific cell types and compare the cellular uptake to the well-studied nanospheres should be the focus of research to better understand the role of shape in uptake.
No related grants have been discovered for Cong Vu.