Cytotoxic Gold Nanoparticles

In a new AOP from Nature Chemistry, Vincent Rotello’s group report a new way of killing cells. There system uses gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) as the core, and attached to the core is a diaminohexane group. The diaminohexane fragment is sheathed from the cell by cucurbit[7]uril (CB[7]).

Once the AuNPs enter the cell they can be triggered to expose its cytotoxic diaminohexane appendages by introducing 1-adamantylamine (ADA); ADA outcompetes the diaminohexane for CB[7].
The paper shows some very nice chemistry and it does a nice job selling the point that their gold nanoparticles are toxic to cells. However, I am worried when they say they are “exploring this strategy in vivo…” as the current generation of their system seems indiscriminate. But, I always enjoy being proven wrong.
Link to paper: Recognition-mediated activation of therapeutic gold nanoparticles inside living cells
Other recent papers by Vincent Rotello