Lysosome-targeted carbon dots for colorimetric and fluorescent dual mode detection of iron ion, in vitro and in vivo imaging.

In this work, a colorimetric and fluorescent dual mode sensor based on lysosome-targeted CDs has been desirably implemented to identify Fe fluctuations in vitro and in vivo. By simple one-pot hydrothermal carbonization of dried field mint, yellow-fluorescent CDs were directly fabricated without the assistance of other reagents and hold exceptional stability, superior biocompatibility as well as ultra-low cytotoxicity. Results indicated that as-prepared CDs can provide a rapid, reliable, and highly selective recognition of Fe with a linear range of 0 μM-400 μM and a detection limit of 0.037 μM. Impressively, it was found that as-developed CDs can successfully target lysosome with high colocalization coefficient (0.85) and responds to fluctuations of Fe in living cells. Further, acquired CDs was ingeniously devoted to Escherichia coli imaging. Besides, obtained CDs was eventually utilized to track the variation of Fe in vivo system. A preliminary research expresses that as-synthesized CDs can function as an effective tool to detect Fe in vitro and in vivo and thus indicates the promising applicability for disease detection in physiology and pathology in the future.