4 research outputs found
Fluorescent Carbon Quantum Dots with Intrinsic Nucleolus-Targeting Capability for Nucleolus Imaging and Enhanced Cytosolic and Nuclear Drug Delivery
Nucleolus tracking and nucleus-targeted
photodynamic therapy are
attracting increasing attention due to the importance of nucleolus
and the sensitivity of nucleus to various therapeutic stimuli. Herein,
a new class of multifunctional fluorescent carbon quantum dots (or
carbon dots, CDs) synthesized via the one-pot hydrothermal reaction
of <i>m</i>-phenylenediamine and l-cysteine was
reported to effectively target nucleolus. The as-prepared CDs possess
superior properties, such as low-cost and facile synthesis, good water
dispersibility, various surface groups for further modifications,
prominent photostability, excellent compatibility, and rapid/convenient/wash-free
staining procedures. Besides, as compared with SYTO RNASelect (a commonly
used commercial dye for nucleolus imaging) that can only image nucleolus
in fixed cells, the CDs can realize high-quality nucleolus imaging
in not only fixed cells but also living cells, allowing the real-time
tracking of nucleolus-related biological behaviors. Furthermore, after
conjugating with protoporphyrin IX (PpIX), a commonly used photosensitizer,
the resultant CD–PpIX nanomissiles showed remarkably increased
cellular uptake and nucleus-targeting properties and achieved greatly
enhanced phototherapeutic efficiency because the nuclei show poor
tolerance to reactive oxygen species produced during the photodynamic
therapy. The in vivo experiments revealed that the negatively charged
CD–PpIX nanomissiles could rapidly and specifically target
a tumor site after intravenous injection and cause efficient tumor
ablation with no toxic side effects after laser irradiation. It is
believed that the present CD-based nanosystem will hold great potential
in nucleolus imaging and nucleus-targeted drug delivery and cancer
therapy
Correction to “Fluorescent Carbon Quantum Dots with Intrinsic Nucleolus-Targeting Capability for Nucleolus Imaging and Enhanced Cytosolic and Nuclear Drug Delivery”
Correction
to “Fluorescent Carbon Quantum Dots with Intrinsic Nucleolus-Targeting
Capability for Nucleolus Imaging and Enhanced Cytosolic and Nuclear
Drug Delivery
Hyperthemia-Promoted Cytosolic and Nuclear Delivery of Copper/Carbon Quantum Dot-Crosslinked Nanosheets: Multimodal Imaging-Guided Photothermal Cancer Therapy
Copper-containing nanomaterials have
been applied in various fields because of their appealing physical,
chemical, and biomedical properties/functions. Herein, for the first
time, a facile, room-temperature, and one-pot method of simply mixing
copper ions and sulfur-doped carbon dots (CDs) is developed for the
synthesis of copper/carbon quantum dot (or CD)-crosslinked nanosheets
(CuCD NSs). The thus-obtained CuCD NSs with the size of 20–30
nm had a high photothermal conversion efficiency of 41.3% and good
photothermal stability. Especially, after coating with thiol-polyethylene
glycol and fluorescent molecules, the resultant CuCD NSs could selectively
target tumor tissues and realize multimodal (photoacoustic, photothermal,
and fluorescence) imaging-guided cancer therapy. More importantly,
our CuCD NSs exhibited laser-triggered cytosolic delivery, lysosomal
escape, and nuclear-targeting properties, which greatly enhanced their
therapeutic efficacy. The significantly enhanced tumor accumulation
of CuCD NSs after in situ tumor-site laser irradiation was also observed
in in vivo experiments. These in vitro and in vivo events occurring
during the continuous laser irradiation have not been observed. Overall,
this work develops a CD-assisted synthetic method of photothermal
nanoagents for triple-modal imaging-guided phototherapy and deepens
our understanding of the action mechanism of photothermal therapy,
which will promote the development of nanomedicine and beyond
Universal Cell Surface Imaging for Mammalian, Fungal, and Bacterial Cells
Because
of the distinct surface structures of different cells (mammalian
cells, fungi, and bacteria), surface labeling for these cells requires
a variety of fluorescent dyes. Besides, fluorescent dyes (especially
the commercial ones) for staining Gram-negative bacterial cell walls
are still lacking. Herein, a conformation-adjustable glycol chitosan
(GC) derivative (GC-PEG cholesterol-FITC) with “all-in-one”
property was developed to realize universal imaging for plasma membranes
of mammalian cells (via hydrophobic interaction) and cell walls of
fungal and bacterial cells (via electrostatic interaction). By comparing
the different staining behaviors of GC-PEG cholesterol-FITC and three
other analogs (GC-PEG-FITC, GC-FITC, and cholesterol-PEG-FITC), we
have elucidated the different roles the hydrophobic and electrostatic
interactions play in the staining performance of these different cells.
Such a simple, noncytotoxic, economic, and universal cell surface
staining reagent will be very useful for investigating cell surface-related
biological events and advancing cell surface engineering of various
types of cells