Abstract
Objectives
To prepare fluorescent carbon dots for loading cationic anticancer drug through donor-quenched nanosurface energy transfer in visible sensing of drug release.
Results
Highly fluorescent carbon dots (CDs) were prepared by a facile hydrothermal approach from citric acid and o-phenylenediamine. The obtained CDs showed a high quantum yield of 46 % and exhibited good cytocompatibility even at 1 mg/ml. The cationic anticancer drug doxorubicin (DOX) can be loaded onto the negatively charged CDs through electrostatic interactions. Additionally, the fluorescent CDs feature reversible donor-quenched mode nanosurface energy transfer. When loading the energy receptor DOX, the donor CDs’ fluorescence was switched “off”, while it turned “on” again after DOX release from the surface through endocytic uptake.
Conclusions
Most DOX molecules were released from the CDs after 6 h incubation and entered cell nuclear region after 8 h, suggesting the drug delivery system may have potential for visible sensing in drug release.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (91227126), the National Key Scientific Instrument and Equipment Development Project of China (2013YQ17046307) and the Nature Science Foundation of Liaoning Province, China (2013020177).
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Wang, B., Wang, S., Wang, Y. et al. Highly fluorescent carbon dots for visible sensing of doxorubicin release based on efficient nanosurface energy transfer. Biotechnol Lett 38, 191–201 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-015-1965-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-015-1965-3