State Key Laboratory of Virology and Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Biology and Medicine, Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Wuhan University, PR China.
Small. 2012 Sep 10;8(17):2680-9. doi: 10.1002/smll.201200591. Epub 2012 Jun 5.
Along with the widespread development of their bioapplications, concerns about the biosafety of quantum dots (QDs) have increasingly attracted intensive attention. This study examines the toxic effect and subcellular location of cadmium telluride (CdTe) QDs with different sizes against yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The innovative approach is based on the combination of microcalorimetric, spectroscopic, electrochemical, and microscopic methods, which allows analysis of the toxic effect of CdTe QDs on S. cerevisiae and its mechanism. According to the values of the half inhibitory concentration (IC(50)), CdTe QDs exhibit marked cytotoxicity in yeast cells at concentrations as low as 80.81 nmol L(-1) for green-emitting CdTe QDs and 17.07 nmol L(-1) for orange-emitting CdTe QDs. QD-induced cell death is characterized by cell wall breakage and cytoplasm blebbing. These findings suggest that QDs with sizes ranging from 4.1 to 5.8 nm can be internalized into yeast cells, which then leads to QD-induced cytotoxicity. These studies provide valuable information for the design and development of aqueous QDs for biological applications.
随着量子点（QD）生物应用的广泛发展，人们对其生物安全性的担忧日益引起人们的关注。本研究考察了不同尺寸的碲化镉（CdTe）QD 对酵母酿酒酵母的毒性作用和亚细胞定位。这项创新研究基于微量热法、光谱法、电化学和显微镜方法的结合，可分析 CdTe QD 对酿酒酵母的毒性作用及其机制。根据半数抑制浓度（IC（50））的值，绿色发射的 CdTe QD 在低至 80.81 nmol L（-1），橙色发射的 CdTe QD 在低至 17.07 nmol L（-1）的浓度下，对酵母细胞表现出明显的细胞毒性。QD 诱导的细胞死亡的特征是细胞壁破裂和细胞质起泡。这些发现表明，粒径为 4.1 至 5.8nm 的 QD 可以被内吞到酵母细胞中，从而导致 QD 诱导的细胞毒性。这些研究为设计和开发用于生物应用的水性 QD 提供了有价值的信息。
