Nitrogen-doped fluorescent carbon dots used for the imaging and tracing of different cancer cells

Abstract

Here, we report the synthesis of nitrogen-doped fluorescent carbon (C) dots using a one-pot hydrothermal method. Transmission electron microscopy results reveal that the particle size of the nitrogen-doped Cdots is very small, with an average diameter of 4.6 nm. After being kept in water for 10 days, the nitrogen-doped C-dots can still dissolve well in the water, showing good stability and compatibility in aqueous solution. The fluorescence spectra show that the nitrogen-doped C-dots exhibit emissiontunable color from blue to green upon excitation from 230 to 520 nm. Cell tests show that the C-dots are low in cytotoxicity and can be used for imaging, detecting and tracing between hepatoma and HeLa cells, because hepatoma and HeLa cells show different sensitivity to different fluorescent colors pumped at different excitation wavelengths.

In vivo Study of Chalcone Loaded Carbon Dots for Enhancement of Anticancer and Bioimaging Potencies

“…Female mice (3-4 weeks of age) were implanted with fibrosarcoma cancer cells by subcutaneous injection. The mice were separated randomly into two groups as a control and treatment group (n = 8) for in vivo therapy experiments when the tumor volume appeared to be about 25-100 mm 3 . For in vivo chemotherapy study, the control group (Saline, 200 μL) and treatment group (Chalcone-APBA-CDs, 200 μL, 0.2 mg/mL -1 ) were intraperitoneally injected every two days for 31 days.…”

“…However, most of this therapy has many damaging side effects, which led to various other derivate diseases 2 . Therefore, many efforts have been made to avoid the use of therapy by using advanced nanotechnology 3 . Generally, fluorescent imaging and drug delivery systems using nanoparticles have been developed with various drug-free pharmacological properties and reduced toxic side effects 4 .…”

Design of Catechin-based Carbon Nanodots as Facile Staining Agents of Tumor Cells

“…On the other hand, drug nanocarriers were reported to have improved cancer treatment efficacy and diminish side effects of the conventional methods [30][31]. Several studies have reported the application of CNDs on cancer treatment [32][33][34]. In the present study, we synthesized potential carbon nanodots (CNDs) from catechin as a natural product isolated from Uncaria gambir.…”