Study the damage of DNA molecules induced by three kinds of aqueous nanoparticles

In this paper, the interaction of DNA molecules with aqueous CdTe quantum dots (CdTe QDs), CdTe/SiO2 composite nanoparticles (CdTe/SiO2 NPs), and Mn-doped ZnSe quantum dots (Mn:ZnSe d-dots) was studied with ethidium bromide as a probe. The purpose of this work was to study the damage of DNA molecules induced by these three kinds of water-soluble nanoparticles. It was found that ionic strength, pH value and UV irradiation influenced the PL emission properties of CdTe QDs, CdTe/SiO2 NPs and Mn:ZnSe d-dots, and also influenced the interaction of DNA molecules with them. Among the three kinds of nanoparticles, DNA molecules were most easily damaged by CdTe QDs whether in the dark or under UV irradiation. The CdTe/SiO2 NPs led to much less DNA damage when compared with CdTe QDs, as a silica overcoating layer could isolate the QDs from the external environment. Mn:ZnSe d-dots as a new class of non-cadmium doped QDs demonstrated almost no damage for DNA molecules, which have great potentials as fluorescent labels in the applications of biomedical assays, imaging of cells and tissues, even in vivo investigations.