Functionalization of Gold Nanoparticles with Metal Complex of Boron Clusters Boosts the Nanoparticles' Affinity to Protein

A novel nanocomposite of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and thiophosphate derivative of metal-boron cluster complex (metallacarborane), [8,8'-μ-O2P(O)SH-3,3'-Co(1,2-C2B9H10)2]HDBU was developed. The metallacarborane functionalized AuNPs were characterized by UV-vis, DLS, ELS, and ESI-MS techniques. The mass-spectrometry studies unanimously confirmed metallacarborane attachment to the surface of AuNPs. Fluorescent properties of the combined nanosystem based on the metallacarborane functionalized AuNPs and bovine serum albumin (BSA) have shown more effective protein binding to functionalized than non-functionalized AuNPs. Functionalizing of AuNPs with compound 1 appears to improve the nanoparticles activity against HSV-1 in cells after long-term infection for the higher virus concentration in post-treatment mode.