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Single-walled carbon nanohorns decorated with semiconductor quantum dots to evaluate intracellular transport

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Abstract

Single-walled carbon nanohorns (SWNHs) have great potential to enhance thermal and chemotherapeutic drug efficiencies for cancer therapies. Despite their diverse capabilities, minimal research has been conducted so far to study nanoparticle intracellular transport, which is an important step in designing efficient therapies. SWNHs, like many other carbon nanomaterials, do not have inherent fluorescence properties making intracellular transport information difficult to obtain. The goals of this project were to (1) develop a simple reaction scheme to decorate the exohedral surface of SWNHs with fluorescent quantum dots (QDs) and improve conjugate stability, and (2) evaluate SWNH–QD conjugate cellular uptake kinetics and localization in various cancer cell lines of differing origins and morphologies. In this study, SWNHs were conjugated to CdSe/ZnS core/shell QDs using a unique approach to carbodiimide chemistry. Transmission electron microscopy and electron dispersive spectroscopy verified the conjugation of SWNHs and QDs. Cellular uptake kinetics and efficiency were characterized in three malignant cell lines: U-87 MG (glioblastoma), MDA-MB-231 (breast cancer), and AY-27 (bladder transitional cell carcinoma) using flow cytometry. Cellular distribution was verified by confocal microscopy, and cytotoxicity was also evaluated using an alamarBlue assay. Results indicate that cellular uptake kinetics and efficiency are highly dependent on cell type, highlighting the significance of studying nanoparticle transport at the cellular level. Nanoparticle intracellular transport investigations may provide information to optimize treatment parameters (e.g., SWNH concentration, treatment time, etc.) depending on tumor etiology.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Dr. David Geohegan at Oak Ridge National Laboratories for generously providing the SWNHs for this research; Dr. Mitsu Murayama and Jay Tuggle at Virginia Tech for assistance with TEM; Melissa Makris at Virginia Tech for her assistance with running the FACSARIA flow cytometer; and Dr. Olga Ivanova for their helpful discussions with this project. Funding for this study was provided by the National Science Foundation Early CAREER Award CBET 0955072, the National Institute of Health Grant 1R21 CA135230-01, an Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Sciences (ICTAS, Virginia Tech) Grant, the National Institute of Health Grant R21 CA156078, the National Science Foundation Grant CBET 0933571, and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program.

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  1. School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, ICTAS Building, Stanger Street, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, USA

    Kristen A. Zimmermann, Christopher G. Rylander & M. Nichole Rylander

  2. Department of Chemistry, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, ICTAS II Building, Washington Street, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, USA

    David L. Inglefield Jr.

  3. Department of Chemistry, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Hahn Hall South Building, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, USA

    Jianfei Zhang & Timothy E. Long

  4. Department of Chemistry, Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, 2 Riverside Circle, Roanoke, VA, 24016, USA

    Harry C. Dorn

  5. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, ICTAS Building, Stanger Street, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, USA

    Christopher G. Rylander & M. Nichole Rylander

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  1. Kristen A. Zimmermann
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Correspondence to Kristen A. Zimmermann.

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Zimmermann, K.A., Inglefield, D.L., Zhang, J. et al. Single-walled carbon nanohorns decorated with semiconductor quantum dots to evaluate intracellular transport. J Nanopart Res 16, 2078 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-013-2078-3

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