Taking advantage of hydrophobic fluorine interactions for self-assembled nanoclusters of quantum dots as delivery platform for enzymes

Self-assembly of nanoparticles provides unique opportunities as nanoplatforms for controlled delivery. By exploiting the important role of non-covalent hydrophobic interactions in the engineering of stable assemblies, nanoclusters were formed by self-assembly of fluorinated quantum dots in aqueous medium through fluorine-fluorine interactions. These nanoclusters were able to encapsulate different enzymes (laccase and α-galactosidase) obtaining encapsulation efficiencies ≥ 74 %. Importantly, the encapsulated enzymes maintained their catalytic activity, following a Michaelis-Menten kinetics. Under acidic environment the nanoclusters were slowly disassembled allowing the release of encapsulated enzymes. The effective release of the assayed enzymes demonstrated the feasibility of this nanoplatform to be used in pH-mediated enzyme delivery. In addition, the as-synthesized nanoclusters of ca. 50 nm diameter presented high colloidal stability and fluorescence emission, which make them a promising multifunctional nanoplatform.