The biocompatibility of amino functionalized CdSe/ZnS quantum-dot-Doped SiO2 nanoparticles with primary neural cells and their gene carrying performance ⋆

Nanoparticles have an enormous potential for the development of applications in biomedicine such as gene or drug delivery. We developed and characterized NH2 functionalized CdSe/ZnS quantum dot (QD)-doped SiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) with both imaging and gene carrier capabilities. We show that QD-doped SiO2 NPs are internalized by primary cortical neural cells without inducing cell death in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, the ability to bind, transport and release DNA into the cell allows GFP-plasmid transfection of NIH-3T3 and human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cell lines. QD-doped SiO2 NPs properties make them a valuable tool for future nanomedicine application.