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Published on: June 18, 2013
Absolutely "off-on" fluorescent CD-based nanotheranostics for tumor intracellular real-time imaging and pH-triggered
Yuman Dong1, Pengcheng Du, Peng Liu
1State Key Laboratory of Applied Organic Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, People's Republic of China. pliu@lzu.edu.cn.
Abstract:
Carbon dots (CDs) have attracted intense attention in tumor nanotheranostics recently; however, those nanotheranostics exhibited similar fluorescence in both normal and tumor tissues, limiting their practical application. In the present work, absolutely "off-on" fluorescent CD-based nanotheranostics was designed for tumor intracellular real-time imaging and pH-triggered DOX delivery via both static quenching by the crosslinking of benzaldehyde-containing diblock copolymers and dynamic quenching because of the surrounding conjugated DOX molecules. The proposed PPEGMA42-b-PFPMA122-(CDs)-DOX nanotheranostics did not exhibit fluorescence in a normal physiological medium, while strong fluorescence recovery occurred in the tumor intracellular microenvironment due to pH-triggered disintegration, releasing the CDs and DOX. The pH-triggered DOX release and absolute "off-on" fluorescence make the proposed nanotheranostics promising for tumor-specific pH-triggered DOX delivery and imaging.
