Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, Ege University , 35100 Bornova, Izmir, Turkey.
Institute of Analytical Chemistry, Chemo- and Biosensors, University of Regensburg , Universitätsstraße 31, 93053 Regensburg, Germany.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2018 Jan 31;10(4):3305-3313. doi: 10.1021/acsami.7b16225. Epub 2018 Jan 19.
War against cancer constantly requires new affinity tools to selectively detect, localize, and quantify biomarkers for diagnosis or prognosis. Herein, carbon nanodots (CDs), an emerging class of fluorescent nanomaterials, coupled with molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs), are employed as a biocompatible optical imaging tool for probing cancer biomarkers. First, N-doped CDs were prepared by hydrothermal synthesis using starch as carbon source and l-tryptophan as nitrogen atom provider to achieve a high quantum yield of 25.1 ± 2%. The CDs have a typical size of ∼3.2 nm and produce an intense fluorescence at 450 nm upon excitation with UV light. A MIP shell for specific recognition of glucuronic acid (GlcA) was then synthesized around the CDs, using the emission of the CDs as an internal light source for photopolymerization. GlcA is a substructure (epitope) of hyaluronan, a biomarker for certain cancers. The biotargeting and bioimaging of hyaluronan on fixated human cervical cancer cells using CD core-MIP shell nanocomposites is demonstrated. Human keratinocytes were used as noncancerous reference cells and indeed, less staining was observed by the CD-MIP.
抗癌斗争不断需要新的亲和工具，以选择性地检测、定位和量化生物标志物，用于诊断或预后。在此，碳点（CDs）作为一类新兴的荧光纳米材料，与分子印迹聚合物（MIPs）结合，被用作探测癌症生物标志物的生物兼容光学成像工具。首先，通过水热合成使用淀粉作为碳源和 l-色氨酸作为氮原子供体制备了 N 掺杂的 CDs，实现了 25.1±2%的高量子产率。CDs 的典型尺寸约为 3.2nm，在紫外光激发下产生强烈的 450nm 荧光。然后，围绕 CDs 合成了用于特异性识别葡萄糖醛酸（GlcA）的 MIP 壳，将 CDs 的发射用作光聚合的内部光源。GlcA 是透明质酸的一个亚结构（抗原决定簇），是某些癌症的生物标志物。使用 CD 核-MIP 壳纳米复合材料对固定的人宫颈癌细胞上的透明质酸进行了靶向生物成像。用人角质形成细胞作为非癌细胞参考细胞，实际上，用 CD-MIP 观察到的染色较少。
