Nucleic acid functionalized nanoparticles for therapeutic applications

A method of inhibiting expression of a gene product comprising the step of hybridizing a polynucleotide encoding said gene product with one or more oligonucleotides complementary to all or a portion of said polynucleotide, said oligonucleotide being bound to a nanoparticle that is not a polymer and that is from about 5 nanometers (nm) to about 50 nm in mean diameter, wherein the oligonucleotide is about 15 to about 80 nucleotides in length and comprises a spacer that creates a distance between the oligonucleotide and the nanoparticle that is equivalent to at least 10 nucleotides,

• wherein said nanoparticle has an in vitro property of inhibiting expression of said gene product by at least 5% compared to expression in the absence of the oligonucleotide and in the absence of a transfection agent.