Abstract
One-dimensional smart probes based on nanowires and nanotubes that can safely penetrate the plasma membrane and enter biological cells are potentially useful in high-resolution1,2,3,4,5,6 and high-throughput7,8 gene and drug delivery, biosensing6,9 and single-cell electrophysiology6,10. However, using such probes for optical communication across the cellular membrane at the subwavelength level remains limited. Here, we show that a nanowire waveguide attached to the tapered tip of an optical fibre can guide visible light into intracellular compartments of a living mammalian cell, and can also detect optical signals from subcellular regions with high spatial resolution. Furthermore, we show that through light-activated mechanisms the endoscope can deliver payloads into cells with spatial and temporal specificity. Moreover, insertion of the endoscope into cells and illumination of the guided laser did not induce any significant toxicity in the cells.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (grant no. R21 EB007474-03) and Department of Energy (Contract no. DE-AC02-05CH11231). The authors thank Z. Huo for transmission electron microscope observations, D. Sirbuly for the nanowire endoscope bending video, H.E. Jeong, J.W. Lee and Q. Pan for cell culturing, and Q. Pan and S. Gweon for discussions. P.Y. thanks the National Science Foundation for the A. T. Waterman Award.
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R.Y., J.P., Y.C., L.P.L. and P.Y. conceived and designed the research. C.H., Y.C. and S.Y. prepared cell samples and performed the calcein live cell essay after cytotoxicity tests. R.Y., J.P. and Y.C. performed the experiments. R.X., J.P., Y.C., L.P.L. and P.Y. analysed the data. R.Y., J.P. and P.Y. wrote the manuscript.
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Yan, R., Park, JH., Choi, Y. et al. Nanowire-based single-cell endoscopy. Nature Nanotech 7, 191–196 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2011.226
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2011.226
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