Tuyển tập báo cáo các nghiên cứu khoa học quốc tế ngành y học dành cho các bạn tham khảo đề tài: Intein-mediated site-specific conjugation of Quantum Dots to proteins in vivo | Journal of Nanobiotechnology BioMed Central Research Intein-mediated site-specific conjugation of Quantum Dots to proteins in vivo Anna Charalambous Maria Andreou and Paris A Skourides Open Access Address Department of Biological Sciences University of Cyprus . Box 20537 1678 Nicosia Cyprus Email Anna Charalambous - annita@ Maria Andreou - mariandreou@ Paris A Skourides - skourip@ Corresponding author Published 10 December 2009 Received 16 September 2009 Accepted 10 December 2009 Journal of Nanobiotechnology 2009 7 9 doi l477-3l55-7-9 This article is available from http content 7 l 9 2009 Charalambous et al licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http licenses by which permits unrestricted use distribution and reproduction in any medium provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract We describe an intein based method to site-specifically conjugate Quantum Dots QDs to target proteins in vivo. This approach allows the covalent conjugation of any nanostructure and or nanodevice to any protein and thus the targeting of such material to any intracellular compartment or signalling complex within the cells of the developing embryo. We genetically fused a pleckstrin-homology PH domain with the N-terminus half of a split intein IN . The C-terminus half IC of the intein was conjugated to QDs in vitro. IC-QD s and RNA encoding PH-IN were microinjected into Xenopus embryos. In vivo intein-splicing resulted in fully functional QD-PH conjugates that could be monitored in real time within live embryos. Use of Near Infra Red NIR -emitting QDs allowed monitoring of QD-conjugates within the embryo at depths where EGFP is undetectable demonstrating the advantages of QD s for this type of experiment. In conclusion we have developed a novel in vivo methodology for the site-specific conjugation of QD
