Fluorescent Neoglycoprotein Gold Nanoclusters: Synthesis and Applications in Plant Lectin Sensing and Cell Imaging

Carbohydrate-protein interactions mediate fundamental biological processes, such as fertilization, cell signaling, or host-pathogen communication. However, because of the enormous complexity of glycan recognition events, new tools enabling their analysis or applications emerge in recent years. Here, we describe the first preparation of neoglycoprotein functionalized fluorescent gold nanoclusters, containing a biantennary N-glycan G0 as targeting molecule, ovalbumin as carrier/model antigen, and a fluorescent gold core as imaging probe (G0-OVA-AuNCs). Subsequently, we demonstrate the utility of generated G0-OVA-AuNCs for specific sensing of plant lectins and in vitro imaging of dendritic cells. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s11671-018-2772-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.