Sulforaphane-Conjugated Carbon Dots: A Versatile Nanosystem for Targeted Imaging and Inhibition of EGFR-Overexpressing Cancer Cells.

Because of the demand for precision medicine, the investigatation on the application of carbon-dots-based nanosystems in the field of biomedicine is attracting more and more attention. Therefore, we have built a multifunctional nanosystem based on sulforaphane-conjugated carbon dots (SFN-CDs) with thiourea skeleton and applied for EGFR-overexpressing cancer cells targeted imaging and inhibiting. The SFN-CDs are formed by grafting sulforaphane on the amino-rich yellow fluorescent carbon dots, which have excellent optical stability and can be distinguished from normal cells for targeted imaging of cancer cells. The vitro toxicity experiments demonstrated that the SFN-CDs can effectively inhibit EGFR-overexpressing cancer cell proliferation at concentrations below 100 μg mL. All these results validated that SFN-CDs nanoparticles with integration of diagnostic and therapeutic functions can be used as a potential nanodurg in early stage of cancer control. Moreover, this work provides useful insight into targeted nanoparticle design in the biological nanomedicine field.