Figure 1 | Scientific Reports

Figure 1

From: Bioresponsive antisense DNA gold nanobeacons as a hybrid in vivo theranostics platform for the inhibition of cancer cells and metastasis

Figure 1

(A) Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) functionalized with a dye (Cy3) labeled hairpin-DNA, i.e. gold-nanobeacon (Au-nanobeacon), designed to detect, target and inhibit the expression of Kras gene in an in vivo murine gastric cancer model. Under hairpin configuration, proximity to gold nanoparticles leads to fluorescence quenching; hybridization to a complementary target restores fluorescence emission due to the Au-nanobeacons’ conformational reorganization that causes the dye and the AuNP to part from each other. The scheme was designed and produced on Adobe Illustrator CC 2014 by J.Conde. (B) Cy3 emission at 570 nm after hybridization with increasing amounts of complementary and non-complementary ssRNA targets (0 to 3E-05 M). (C) Flow cytometry analysis comparing nanobeacon anti-Kras treated cells to nanobeacon nonsense. (D) The silencing effect was expressed as a concentration-dependent decrease in Kras relative expression. Anti-Kras nanobeacons showed potent silencing effects in human gastric cancer cells (MGC-803) with an ED50 between 1 and 5 nM. (E) Live imaging images of anti-Kras nanobeacon (previously incubated with Kras complementary target) compared to nanonsense nanobeacon and a blank tube.

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