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1. Nanoparticle Synthesis and Functionalization
CAUTION: All synthesis should occur in a ventilated chemical fume hood.
- Prior to synthesis, filter approximately 300 mL of deionized (DI) water through a 0.2 µm sterile filter.
- Clean a 250 mL glass round bottom flask with a detergent solution and rinse with DI water. Add 0.0134 g of CuCl2 into 100 mL of DI water to create a 1 mM solution.
- Add 0.015 g of folic acid (FA) to the CuCl2 solution and stir for ~5 min using a magnetic stir bar.
- Add Na2S·9H2O (0.024 g in 100 µL DI water) over approximately 10 s to the reaction mixture utilizing a 200 µL pipette.
NOTE: Upon addition of the Na2S·9H2O, the solution will change color from a light yellow to a dark brown.
- Cap the reaction and place in an oil bath, set to 90 °C, and continue stirring with a magnetic stir bar. After approximately 15 min, or when the oil bath has reached 85−90 °C, allow the reaction to proceed for an additional hour. Your mixture should gradually turn to a dark green color.
NOTE: Make sure to vent the system while heating the reaction mixture to avoid pressure buildup.
- Remove the reaction vessel from the oil bath and briefly cool at room temperature for approximately 10 to 15 min before transferring to an ice bath.
- Once the reaction mixture has cooled below 20 °C, adjust the pH to 10 utilizing 1M NaOH to dissolve the remaining folic acid into solution.
- Purify the FA-CuS reaction mixture using a 30 kDa centrifugation column. Add solution in 15 mL batches to the column and centrifuge at 3,082 x g for 15 min.
- Once all of the reaction mixture has been concentrated, recombine the concentrated fractions and wash 4x with 15 mL of pH 10 NaOH in the 30 kDa centrifugation column.
- For mass measurements, take 1/3 of the solution (~66 µL) and split into three glass vials. Dry in a vacuum oven overnight at 40 °C under a vacuum of ~27 mmHg.
- Dissolve the other 2/3 of concentrated solution into 250 µL of PBS and store at 4 °C until further use.
- Prior to utilizing the FA-CuS NPs, sonicate them for 30 min in a bath sonicator on a high setting.
2. FA-CuS NPs Uptake by Ovarian Cancer Cells
- Prior to incubation with FA-CuS NPs, incubate SKOV-3 cells in a T75 flask with 8−15 mL of folic-acid-free RPMI-1640 media with 10% FBS and 1% penicillin/streptomycin for at least 24 h.
- Seed the cells in 0.5 mL of folic-acid-free RPMI-1640 complete growth media at a density of 0.1 x 106 cells/mL into a 24-well plate.
- The following day, incubate the cells with 400 µg/mL FA-CuS NPS in 0.5 mL of folic-acid-free RPMI-1640 complete growth media for 2 h.
- Following this incubation, trypsinize the cells with 0.5 mL of 0.25% trypsin with EDTA. Add at least 1 mL of folic-acid-free RPMI-1640 complete growth media to neutralize the trypsin, and centrifuge the cells at 123 x g for 6 min.
- Remove the supernatant, resuspend the cells in 2 mL of PBS, and centrifuge at 123 x g for 6 min. Perform this wash step 2x to remove any unbound NPs.
- Resuspend the cells in 1−2 mL of PBS with 2% Tween solution.
- Count the cells using a hemocytometer and Trypan Blue. Further, dilute the cells if cell counts are too high. Dilute the cells in PBS with 2% Tween to the chosen concentration for detection.
- The cells are now ready to be analyzed by the PAFC system.