Issue 107, 2016, Issue in Progress

Hyaluronic acid functionalized nitrogen-doped carbon quantum dots for targeted specific bioimaging

Abstract

Carbon quantum dots (CQDs), a new inorganic quasi-zero dimensional carbon nanomaterial, are extensively applied in biomedical fields. However, the lack of specific cell targeting ligands on the surface has consistently been a critical problem to be overcome in application of CQD technology. In this study, hyaluronic acid-functionalized CQDs (HA-CQDs) were synthesized via hydrothermal carbonization for tumor-targeted bioimaging. The synthesized HA-CQDs possessed highly hydrophilic surfaces, uniform size distribution (approximately 2.3 nm) and heterogeneous multi-layered crystal structures. Due to the superior fluorescence property of HA-CQDs, the labeled cells could be observed and detected using a confocal microscope and flow cytometry. By virtue of the functional HA ligands, HA-CQDs exhibited excellent colloidal stability and favorable biocompatibility, and readily entered into the cytoplasm of CD44-overexpression cancer cells. HA competitive binding assay demonstrated that the internalization process was regulated by CD44 (HA receptor)-mediated endocytosis. These results validated that the as-prepared HA-CQDs could particularly serve as novel cell-specific fluorescent probes for CD44 high expression in tumor-targeted imaging and labelling.

Graphical abstract: Hyaluronic acid functionalized nitrogen-doped carbon quantum dots for targeted specific bioimaging

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
05 Sep 2016
Accepted
17 Oct 2016
First published
20 Oct 2016

RSC Adv., 2016,6, 104979-104984

Hyaluronic acid functionalized nitrogen-doped carbon quantum dots for targeted specific bioimaging

M. Zhang, Z. Fang, X. Zhao, Y. Niu, J. Lou, L. Zhao, Y. Wu, S. Zou, F. Du and Q. Shao, RSC Adv., 2016, 6, 104979 DOI: 10.1039/C6RA22210B

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