Chung Seokhwan, Zhang Miqin
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States.
Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2021 Jul 6;9:711534. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2021.711534. eCollection 2021.
Fluorescence microscopy is commonly used to image specific parts of a biological system, and is applicable for early diagnosis of cancer. Current fluorescent probes, such as organic dyes and quantum dots, suffer from poor solubility and high toxicity, respectively, demonstrating a need for a colloidal stable and non-toxic fluorescent probe. Here we present an iron oxide and carbon dot (CD) based nanoparticle (CNPCP) that displays optical properties similar to those of conventional fluorescent probe and also exhibits good biocompatibility. Fluorescent CDs were synthesized from glucosamine onto chitosan - polyethylene glycol (PEG) graft copolymer using microwave irradiation. These NPs were monodispersed in aqueous environments and displayed excitation-dependent fluorescence; they demonstrated good size stability and fluorescence intensity in biological media. evaluation of CNP as fluorescent probes in cancer cell lines showed that these NPs caused little toxicity, and allowed fast and quantitative imaging. Model therapeutic doxorubicin (DOX) was conjugated onto the NPs (CNPCP-DOX) to demonstrate the multifunctionality of the NPs, and studies showed that CNPCP-DOX was able to kill cancer cells in a dose dependent manner. These results indicate the potential of using CNPCPs as fluorescent probes capable of delivering chemotherapeutics.
荧光显微镜常用于对生物系统的特定部分进行成像，适用于癌症的早期诊断。目前的荧光探针，如有机染料和量子点，分别存在溶解性差和毒性高的问题，这表明需要一种胶体稳定且无毒的荧光探针。在此，我们展示了一种基于氧化铁和碳点（CD）的纳米颗粒（CNPCP），它具有与传统荧光探针相似的光学性质，并且还表现出良好的生物相容性。荧光碳点是通过微波辐射由氨基葡萄糖在壳聚糖 - 聚乙二醇（PEG）接枝共聚物上合成的。这些纳米颗粒在水性环境中呈单分散状态，并表现出激发依赖性荧光；它们在生物介质中显示出良好的尺寸稳定性和荧光强度。在癌细胞系中对CNP作为荧光探针的评估表明，这些纳米颗粒几乎没有毒性，并能实现快速定量成像。将模型治疗药物阿霉素（DOX）偶联到纳米颗粒上（CNPCP - DOX）以证明纳米颗粒的多功能性，研究表明CNPCP - DOX能够以剂量依赖的方式杀死癌细胞。这些结果表明了将CNPCP用作能够递送化疗药物的荧光探针的潜力。
