Med-X Research Institute and School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China.
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Ren Ji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
Biomater Sci. 2023 Apr 11;11(8):2935-2949. doi: 10.1039/d2bm02139k.
The nucleolus is a newly developed and promising target for cancer diagnosis and therapy, and its imaging is extremely significant for fundamental research and clinical applications. The unique feature, , high resolution at the subcellular level, makes the fluorescence imaging method a powerful tool for nucleolus imaging. However, the fluorescence imaging of nucleoli in living cells is restricted by the limited availability of fluorescent agents with specific nucleolus-targeting capability and superior biocompatibility. Here, promising carbon dots (CDs) with intrinsic nucleolus-targeting capability were synthesized, characterized and employed for dynamic fluorescence imaging of nucleoli in living cells. The CDs exhibit a high fluorescence quantum yield of 0.2, excellent specificity and photostability, and superior biocompatibility, which were systematically demonstrated at the gene, cellular and animal levels and confirmed by their biological effects on embryonic development. All these features enabled CDs to light up the nucleoli for a long time with a high signal-to-noise ratio in living cells and monitor the nucleolar dynamics of malignant cells in camptothecin (CPT) based chemotherapy. Their excellent optical and biological features as well as general nucleolus-targeting capability endow CDs with great potential for future translational research.
核仁是癌症诊断和治疗中一个新兴且有前景的靶点，对其进行成像在基础研究和临床应用中具有重要意义。其独特的特性，即在亚细胞水平上具有高分辨率，使得荧光成像是核仁成像的有力工具。然而，活细胞中核仁的荧光成像受到具有特异性核仁靶向能力和优异生物相容性的荧光试剂的有限可用性的限制。在这里，合成、表征了具有内在核仁靶向能力的有前途的碳点（CDs），并将其用于活细胞中核仁的动态荧光成像。CDs 表现出高的荧光量子产率为 0.2，优异的特异性和光稳定性，以及优异的生物相容性，这些在基因、细胞和动物水平上进行了系统的证明，并通过它们对胚胎发育的生物学影响得到了证实。所有这些特性使 CDs 能够在活细胞中长时间点亮核仁，具有高信噪比，并监测基于喜树碱（CPT）的化疗中恶性细胞的核仁动力学。它们优异的光学和生物学特性以及普遍的核仁靶向能力使 CDs 具有很大的转化研究潜力。
