Carbon Dots as Promising Tools for Cancer Diagnosis and Therapy

Abstract

Carbon Dots (CDs) are the latest members of carbon-based nanomaterials, which since their discovery have attracted notable attention due to their chemical and mechanical properties, brilliant fluorescence, high photostability, and good biocompatibility. Together with the ease and affordable preparation costs, these intrinsic features make CDs the most promising nanomaterials for multiple applications in the biological field, such as bioimaging, biotherapy, and gene/drug delivery. This review will illustrate the most recent applications of CDs in the biomedical field, focusing on their biocompatibility, fluorescence, low cytotoxicity, cellular uptake, and theranostic properties to highlight above all their usefulness as a promising tool for cancer diagnosis and therapy.

Carbon Dots: An Innovative Tool for Drug Delivery in Brain Tumors

“…Although this eliminates the need for additives to provide the NPs with an affinity for the aqueous environment, it is still desirable to modify the functional moieties at the surface of the original carbon nanomaterials, e.g., to increase their biocompatibility or impart the C-dots with new chemical functions. The natural occurrence of accessible and reactive functional groups is largely exploited both in covalent and non-covalent surface treatments [66,107,109], providing C-dots with new (bio)sensing capabilities, improved photoluminescence, broader in vitro and in vivo bioimaging, as well as drug-delivery and theranostic capabilities [13,[110][111][112][113].…”

“…Currently, a wide variety of therapeutic nanoparticle (NP) platforms, including lipid-based, polymer-based, inorganic, viral, and drug-conjugated nanoparticles (NPs), have been approved for use in the clinic as nanocarriers for cancer treatment. Nanocarriers, due to specific properties such as smaller size, high surface-to-volume ratios, higher reactivity, drug release profiles, targeting modifications, as well as specific optical properties, can better reach cancer tissue and release drugs in a controlled manner [12,13]. Among the most-used nanocarriers, carbon nanomaterials, including graphene, fullerenes, carbon nanotubes, and carbon quantum dots, have attracted the attention of cancer theranostics for their optical, electronic, thermal, and mechanical properties and their versatile and biocompatible functionalization [14].…”

Carbon Dots: Classification, Properties, Synthesis, Characterization, and Applications in Health Care—An Updated Review (2018–2021)

“…CDs as the potent imaging agents play a pivotal role in the real-time imagining of either certain cells, tissues, organs, or in combination, that help in the accurate diagnosis of various forms of cancer and several diseases. Moreover, they have the tendency to efficiently deliver genes/drugs by serving as nanocarriers, as well as also being highly capable theranostic agents for various phototherapies like photodynamic and photothermal therapies [43,44,[58][59][60][61][62][63]. Henceforth, all these significant attributes of CDs make them strong foundations for serving various diagnostic and therapeutic applications.…”

Dual Targeting with Cell Surface Electrical Charge and Folic Acid via Superparamagnetic Fe3O4@Cu2–xS for Photothermal Cancer Cell Killing

“…Upon application of near-infrared (NIR) laser, the nanoparticles, typically gold or iron oxide, that are taken up by the tumor, can raise temperature to hyperthermic levels (~45 °C) for ablation of the targeted cancer cells [ 2 ]. In recent years, a variety of nanoparticles have been developed with multifunctionalities for medical diagnosis and therapeutics, among which the iron-oxide nanoparticles exhibit pronounced photothermal effects and, therefore, are most widely applied for photothermal therapy (PTT) [ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 ]. Specifically, the superparamagnetic Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles have been extensively studied for biomedical applications, such as gene or drug delivery, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and magnetically-guided targeting [ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 ].…”