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Mimicking Vesicle Fusion To Make Gold Nanoparticles Easily Penetrate Cells

Posted by Unknown on from the golden-hypospray dept.

rtoz (2530056) writes A special class of tiny gold particles can easily slip through cell membranes, making them good candidates to deliver drugs directly to target cells. A new study from MIT materials scientists reveals that these nanoparticles enter cells by taking advantage of a route normally used in vesicle-vesicle fusion, a crucial process that allows signal transmission between neurons. MIT engineers created simulations of how a gold nanoparticle coated with special molecules can penetrate a membrane. Paper (abstract; full text paywalled).

9 of 20 comments (clear)

  1. plating effect by jblues · · Score: 2

    As folks who've experimented with the anti-biotic and anti-viral effects of silver can attest, its important that we do indeed start with nano-particles. Bigger particles tend to have a plating effect and tattoo under the skin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

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    If it acquires resources on instantiation like a duck, then its a shared_ptr<Duck>
  2. Particles are baloney by toQDuj · · Score: 1

    Except that the stripy particles used here are not real. Stellacci has been claiming to make these, but there are big doubts over the evidence:
    http://www.timeshighereducatio...

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    Every experiment which ends in a big bang is a good experiment.
    1. Re:Particles are baloney by toQDuj · · Score: 3, Informative

      Additional links: A big discussion has taken place on PubPeer following a pre-publication arXiv release of a paper (full disclosure: I'm a co-author on the second version of this paper). The paper is well worth a read, and should be coming out soon in PLoS One.

      ArXiv: http://arxiv.org/abs/1312.6812
      Pubpeer: https://pubpeer.com/publicatio...

      --
      Every experiment which ends in a big bang is a good experiment.
    2. Re:Particles are baloney by sribe · · Score: 1

      Oh come on, man! Did you even read that article? The person questioning him is Prof. Moriarity! Once an evil villain, always an evil villain!

    3. Re:Particles are baloney by toQDuj · · Score: 1

      Actually, I've been working with Prof. Moriarty and he's great fun. He has some "sixty symbols" and "numberphile" videos up on youtube if you are interested.

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      Every experiment which ends in a big bang is a good experiment.
    4. Re:Particles are baloney by Badge+17 · · Score: 1

      Taking a look at the paper, it doesn't appear that these results are highly dependent on the striped morphology, which, I agree, is dubious. These guys aren't using that, they're claiming a "checkerboard" shape.

      I haven't read through the whole literature on this - are *all* of the patterns crap? Are there checkerboards, or just noise + STM artifacts?

  3. I had to read that title 3 times by viperidaenz · · Score: 1

    First it looked like Vehicle Fusion, then Testicle Fusion.

  4. Urgh by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

    Mimicking Vesicle Fusion To Make Gold Nanoparticles Easily Penetrate Cells

    I've no idea what that means but I feel dirty after reading it.

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    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  5. It's been done by Sir+Holo · · Score: 1

    It's been done already. Open access.

    That is, non-toxic transfection and organelle targeting of a combination "marker & delivery vehicle" into live cells, confirmed by both optical and electron imaging. Special nanodiamonds in this case.

    (Full disclosure: It was me.)