Cellular uptake of gold nanoparticles directly cross-linked with carrier peptides by osteosarcoma cells.

Nanoparticles have been extensively used for a variety of biomedical applications and there is a growing need for highly specific and efficient delivery of the nanoparticles into target cells and subcellular location. We attempted to accomplish this goal by modifying gold particles with peptide motif's that are known to deliver a 'cargo' into chosen cellular location specifically, we intended to deliver nanogold particles into cells through chemical cross-linking with different peptides known to carry protein into cells. Our results suggest that specific sequence of such 'carrier peptides' can efficiently deliver gold nanoparticles into cells when chemically cross-linked with the metal particles.