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 covalently bound to an inorganic nanoparticle that is from about 5 nanometers (nm) to about 50 nm in mean diameter, wherein the distance of the oligonucleotide from the nanoparticle is equivalent to at least 10 nucleotides,

• wherein said nanoparticle does not comprise a targeting peptide and is not a dendrimer, and 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,
• and wherein hybridization of the polynucleotide encoding said gene product and said oligonucleotide results in inhibiting expression of said gene product.