Construction of magnetic-carbon-quantum-dots-probe-labeled apoferritin nanocages for bioimaging and targeted therapy

Abstract

Carbon dots (CDs) are one of the most highlighted carbon-based materials for biological applications, such as optical imaging nanoprobes, which are used for labeling cells in cancer treatment mainly due to their biocompatibility and unique optical properties. In this study, gadolinium (Gd)-complex-containing CDs were obtained through a one-step microwave method to develop multimodal nanoprobes integrating the advantages of optical and magnetic imaging. The obtained Gd-CDs exhibited highly fluorescent properties with excellent water solubility and biological compatibility. Natural apoferritin (AFn) nanocages, an excellent drug delivery carrier, are hollow in structure, with their pH-dependent, unfolding–refolding process at pH 2.0 and 7.4. The chemotherapeutic drug doxorubicin (DOX) can be highly effective and encapsulated into AFn cavity. A widely used tumor-targeting molecule, folic acid (FA), functionalized the surface of AFn to obtain an active tumor targeting effect on MCF-7 cells and malignant tumors in mice models. In this study, an AFn nanocarrier encapsulating high concentration of DOX labeled with magnetic and fluorescent Gd-CDs probe was developed. Gd-CDs exhibited a unique green photoluminescence and almost no toxicity compared with free GdCl 3 . Furthermore, Gd-doped CDs significantly increased the circulation time and decreased the toxicity of Gd 3+ in in vitro and in vivo magnetic resonance imaging, which demonstrated that the AFn nanocages labeled with Gd-CD compounds could serve as an excellent T 1 contrast agent for magnetic resonance imaging. The self-assembling multifunctional Gd-CDs/AFn (DOX)/FA nanoparticles have a great potential for cancer theranostic applications.

Blue light-emitting carbon dots (CDs) from a milk protein and their interaction with Spinacia oleracea leaf cells

“…Owing to these properties, carbon dots (CDs) have tremendous potential to be used in a number of applications such as cell imaging and sensing [4][5][6]. Fluorescence carbon nanoparticle (CNP) shows high potential in biological labeling, bio-imaging and other different optoelectronic device application [7,8], targeted drug delivery [9,10] in cancer theranostics [11,12], and drug delivery [13]. In addition to this, they find multiple applications in analytical chemistry [14].…”

Application of Nanomaterials in Biomedical Imaging and Cancer Therapy

“…They can also be conjugated to apoferritin nanocages for drug loading capabilities such as DOX. Folic acid can be used as a targeting molecule for MCF-7 cells and the results showed it is a viable theranostic tool with negligible toxicity [ 198 ]. A new iron (III)–tannic complex-based NP (Fe–TA NP) was introduced.…”

The Potential of Nanotechnology in Medically Assisted Reproduction

“…For example, the functionalization of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) with anti-prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) increased the detection limit and the sensitivity of MRI in prostate tumor cell culture ( Sillerud, 2016 ). In addition to iron oxide, other nanomaterials already tested in cell culture and/or animal models can be used as contrast agents to enhance imaging diagnostics, including gold nanoparticles ( Indrasekara et al, 2013 ; Cole et al, 2015 ), carbon nanotubes ( Liu et al, 2007 ; Vittorio et al, 2011 ), liposomes ( Martina et al, 2005 ; Mukundan et al, 2006 ), dendrimers ( Miyake et al, 2015 ), and quantum dots ( Guo et al, 2014 ; Yao et al, 2016 ).…”