DNA-templated fluorescent silver nanoclusters inhibit bacterial growth while being non-toxic to mammalian cells

Lewis Rolband, Liam Yourston, Morgan Chandler, Damian Beasock, Leyla Danai, Seraphim Kozlov, Nolan Marshall, Oleg Shevchenko, Alexey V. Krasnoslobodtsev, Kirill A. Afonin

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

22 Scopus citations

Abstract

Silver has a long history of antibacterial effectiveness. The combination of atomically precise metal nanoclusters with the field of nucleic acid nanotechnology has given rise to DNA-templated silver nanoclusters (DNA-AgNCs) which can be engineered with reproducible and unique fluorescent properties and antibacterial activity. Furthermore, cytosine-rich single-stranded DNA oligonucleotides designed to fold into hairpin structures improve the stability of AgNCs and additionally modulate their antibacterial properties and the quality of observed fluorescent signals. In this work, we characterize the sequence-specific fluorescence and composition of four representative DNA-AgNCs, compare their corresponding antibacterial effectiveness at different pH, and assess cytotoxicity to several mammalian cell lines.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number4045
JournalMolecules
Volume26
Issue number13
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 1 2021

Keywords

  • AgNC
  • Antibacterial
  • DNA
  • Fluorescence
  • Nanocluster
  • Silver

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Analytical Chemistry
  • Chemistry (miscellaneous)
  • Molecular Medicine
  • Pharmaceutical Science
  • Drug Discovery
  • Physical and Theoretical Chemistry
  • Organic Chemistry

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