Near Infrared Light Activates Molecular Nanomachines to Drill Into and Kill Cells

Liu, Dongdong; García-López, Víctor; Gunasekera, Richard S.; Greer Nilewski, Lizanne; Alemany, Lawrence B.; Aliyan, Amir; Jin, Tao; Wang, Gufeng; Tour, James M.; Pal, Robert

Abstract

Using two-photon excitation (2PE), molecular nanomachines (MNMs) are able to drill through cell membranes and kill the cells. This avoids the use of the more damaging ultraviolet (UV) light that has been used formerly to induce this nanomechanical cell-killing effect. Since 2PE is inherently confocal, enormous precision can be realized. The MNMs can be targeted to specific cell surfaces through peptide addends. Further, the efficacy was verified through controlled opening of synthetic bilayer vesicles using the 2PE excitation of MNM that had been trapped within the vesicles.

Citation

Liu, D., García-López, V., Gunasekera, R. S., Greer Nilewski, L., Alemany, L. B., Aliyan, A., …Pal, R. (2019). Near Infrared Light Activates Molecular Nanomachines to Drill Into and Kill Cells. ACS Nano, 13(6), 6813-6823. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.9b01556

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 21, 2019
• Online Publication Date: May 22, 2019
• Publication Date: Jun 25, 2019
• Deposit Date: May 24, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: May 24, 2019
• Journal: ACS Nano
• Print ISSN: 1936-0851
• Electronic ISSN: 1936-086X
• Publisher: American Chemical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 13
• Issue: 6
• Pages: 6813-6823
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.9b01556
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1301035