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Altering sub-cellular location for bioimaging by engineering the carbon based fluorescent nanoprobe

通过碳基荧光纳米探针的设计调控其亚细胞定位和生物成像

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摘要

碳基荧光纳米探针在生物成像领域展现出诱人的应用前景. 本文通过调节合成方法合成了一种磺酸基修饰的石墨烯量子点(S-GQDs) 荧光探针. 该探针呈现出优异的光学和理化性能, 如荧光强度高、 pH稳定、 表面带负电等. 研究表明其发光机理主要依赖荧光分子发光机制. 与我们之前报道的氨基化量子点A-GQDs和肿瘤细胞核靶向探针GTTN对比, 该探针具有良好的生物安全性, 可以在相当短的时间内即跨膜进入细胞, 而GTTN在正常的体外培养条件下无法进入细胞. 为此, 我们探究了产生该差异的原因. 结果表明, S-GQDs与A-GQDs截然不同的合成原料导致了他们的毒性差异, 而S-GQDs的不稳定性则是导致其进入细胞、 与GTTN明显不同的主要原因.

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Acknowledgements

This work has been supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21371115, 11025526, 1175107, 21101104 and 11422542), Shanghai University-Universal Medical Imaging Diagnostic Research Foundation (19H00100) and the Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University (IRT13078).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tumor Precision Targeting Research Center, School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200444, China

    Chenchen Li  (李晨晨), Kangkang Zhang  (章康康), Chenjie Yao  (姚晨婕), Lin Ding  (丁琳), Yanan Huang  (黄雅男), Xuelian Yin  (尹雪莲), Junfeng Zhang  (章俊峰), Wenchao Gao  (高文超), Minghong Wu  (吴明红) & Yanli Wang  (王艳丽)

  2. Institution of Nanochemistry and Nanobiology, School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200444, China

    Chenchen Li  (李晨晨), Yanan Huang  (黄雅男), Xuelian Yin  (尹雪莲), Junfeng Zhang  (章俊峰), Wenchao Gao  (高文超) & Yanli Wang  (王艳丽)

  3. Universal Medical Imaging Diagnostic Research Center, Shanghai, 200233, China

    Jian Zhang  (张建)

  4. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts, 02115, USA

    Chenjie Yao  (姚晨婕)

  5. Department of Biological Chemistry, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

    Lin Ding  (丁琳)

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  1. Chenchen Li  (李晨晨)
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  2. Kangkang Zhang  (章康康)
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  3. Chenjie Yao  (姚晨婕)
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  4. Lin Ding  (丁琳)
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  5. Yanan Huang  (黄雅男)
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  6. Xuelian Yin  (尹雪莲)
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  10. Minghong Wu  (吴明红)
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  11. Yanli Wang  (王艳丽)
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Contributions

Author contributions Zhang K, Yao C and Gao W designed and engineered the materials; Li C, Ding L and Huang Y conceived and performed the biological experiments and characterization of materials; Zhang J contributed to the discussion and paper writing. Wang Y convinced the idea. Wang Y and Wu M wrote the paper. All authors contributed to the general discussion.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Minghong Wu  (吴明红) or Yanli Wang  (王艳丽).

Additional information

Conflict of interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Chenchen Li was born in 1991. She is a PhD student in Prof. Minghong Wu’s group and supervised by Prof. Yanli Wang. She joined Prof. Wu’s group as a PhD student in 2016. Her research interests focus on the biosecurity and bio-behavior of nanomaterials.

Yanli Wang obtained her PhD degree in environmental engineering from Shanghai University in 2010. Now she is the director of the Tumor Precision Targeting Research Center, Shanghai University, and a professor of the School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai University. Her main research interests include: 1. the application of intelligent targeted fluorescent nanomaterials in tumor diagnosis; 2. intelligent targeted nanodrug design and its application in tumor therapy; 3. the development of tumor marker detection kit; 4. biosecurity of nanomaterials.

Minghong Wu obtained her PhD degree from Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics of Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1999. She is the vice president of Shanghai University. She is the National Outstanding Youth, Yangtze River scholar of China and the foreign academicians of Russian Academy of Engineering and Russian Academy of Science. Her research interests mainly focus on bio-effects and safety evaluation of nanomaterials and environmental pollution analysis and control.

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Li, C., Zhang, K., Yao, C. et al. Altering sub-cellular location for bioimaging by engineering the carbon based fluorescent nanoprobe. Sci. China Mater. 62, 1496–1504 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40843-019-9450-3

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