Surface-mediated gene delivery has attracted more and more attentions in biomedical research and applications because of its characteristics of low toxicity and localized delivery. Herein, a novel visible-light-regulated, surface-mediated gene-delivery platform is exhibited, arising from the photoinduced surface-charge accumulation on silicon. Silicon with a pn junction is used and tested subsequently for the behavior of surface-mediated gene delivery under visible-light illumination. It is found that positive-charge accumulation under light illumination changes the surface potential and then facilitates the delivery of gene-loaded carriers. As a result, the gene-expression efficiency shows a significant improvement from 6% to 28% under a 10 min visible-light illumination. Such improvement is ascribed to the increase in surface potential caused by light illumination, which promotes both the release of gene-loaded carriers and the cellular uptake. This work suggests that silicon with photovoltaic effect could offer a new strategy for surface-mediated, gene-delivery-related biomedical research and applications.

中文翻译：

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可见光照明辅助表面介导的基因传递的新型平台。

表面介导的基因递送由于其低毒性和局部递送的特性而在生物医学研究和应用中引起了越来越多的关注。在本文中，展示了一种新型的可见光调节的，表面介导的基因传递平台，该平台是由光诱导的表面电荷在硅上的积累引起的。使用具有pn结的硅，并随后在可见光照射下测试表面介导的基因传递的行为。发现在光照下的正电荷积累改变了表面电势，然后促进了载有基因的载体的递送。结果，在10分钟的可见光照射下，基因表达效率从6％显着提高到28％。这种改善归因于由光照引起的表面电势的增加，这既促进了基因加载载体的释放又促进了细胞的吸收。这项工作表明具有光伏效应的硅可以为表面介导的，与基因传递有关的生物医学研究和应用提供新的策略。