Rapid synthesis of cyclic RGD conjugated gold nanoclusters for targeting and fluorescence imaging of melanoma A375 cells.

A simple, rapid, and inexpensive method for the synthesis of cyclic arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (RGD) peptide conjugated gold nanoclusters (RGD-GNCs) was reported. The nanoclusters were synthesized with chloraurate as precursor and cyclic RGD peptides as both reducing and protecting agent directly under alkali condition, and the whole synthetic process only took 15 min at room temperature. The properties of the nanoclusters were characterized by means of ultraviolet-visible spectra, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), fluorescence, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS).