Parameters affecting intracellular delivery of molecules using laser-activated carbon nanoparticles

Previous studies showed that carbon nanoparticles exposed to nanosecond laser pulses cause intracellular uptake of molecules. In this study, prostate cancer cells incubated with carbon-black (CB) nanoparticles and fluorescent marker compounds were exposed to 10ns laser pulses at a wavelength of 1064nm, after which intracellular uptake was measured by flow cytometry.

We observed delivery of calcein and dextran (150kDa) into >50% of cells, whereas larger dextrans (≤2,000kDa) were taken up by ~10% of cells. Under all conditions studied, cell viability loss was minimal. Uptake also increased with increasing laser power, increasing CB nanoparticle concentration, increasing CB nanoparticle size and decreasing laser wavelength. CB nanoparticles enabled uptake better than gold nanoparticles or multi-walled carbon nanotubes under the conditions studied. Proof-of-principle experiments showed intracellular uptake by cells in muscle tissue in vivo. We conclude that intracellular uptake of molecules using laser-activated CB nanoparticles provides a promising approach to deliver molecules into cells.

Nanomedicine : nanotechnology, biology, and medicine. 2016 Jan 06 [Epub ahead of print]

Prerona Chakravarty, Christopher D Lane, Thomas M Orlando, Mark R Prausnitz

School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA USA. , School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA USA. , School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA USA. , School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA USA. 

PubMed