Functional gold nanoparticles for analysis and delivery of nucleic acids

J Food Drug Anal. 2024 Sep 13;32(3):252-273. doi: 10.38212/2224-6614.3514.

Abstract

Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have become the rising stars in the field of nanotechnology and made a revolution in exploiting the profundity of genomics due to their distinguished properties such as stability, ease in preparation and conjugation, biocompatibility, and unique optical properties. These characteristics have greatly expanded their applications such as sensitive and selective quantitation of nucleic acids and as effective carriers for specifically delivering various important molecules/biomolecules to various targets, which are the cornerstone in treating genetic disorders. This review comprehensively discusses the most recent progress in utilization of AuNPs in quantitation and delivery of nucleic acids. The future prospects and challenges of various methods have also been illustrated. It is believed that researchers will continue to overcome the limitations in previous approaches and AuNPs will still play vital roles in the development of diagnosis and treatment of gene-related diseases.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Gold* / chemistry
  • Humans
  • Metal Nanoparticles* / chemistry
  • Nucleic Acids*

Substances

  • Gold
  • Nucleic Acids

Grants and funding

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the National Science and Technology Council of Taiwan (MOST 111-2113-M-037-010 and 110-2113-M-002-005-MY3) for the funding of this work.