Figure 8.
Ultrasmall GNs in cancer gene therapy. Schematic representation of the synthesis and mechanism of action of gold-DNA nanosunflowers for efficient gene silencing. The upper part (A) shows the reversible assembly of the large nanostructures from thiol-oligonucleotide-modified ultrasmall GNs. The lower part (B) shows that the large gold-DNA nanostructures dissociate upon NIR irradiation and release small units which enter the cell nucleus and silence the target oncogene (c-myc). Adapted with permission from 90, copyright 2019 The Authors.