Transforming Passive into Active: Multimodal Pheophytin-Based Carbon Dots Customize Protein Corona to Target...

Formation of protein corona on nanomaterials surface in vivo is usually considered as an unpredictable event for a predefined targeted delivery system for malignant cancers. In most situations, these protein coronas substantially change targeting efficiency or even cause adverse reactions which both hinder the clinical translation of the cargo-delivery systems. Active customization of protein corona onto nanomaterials surfaces can benefit their biomedical performances and open up new opportunities in construction of targeted delivery systems. Herein, lipid-PEG/pheophytin carbon dots (LPCDs) are prepared from natural chlorophyll and integrate seamlessly with positron emission tomography imaging, near-infrared fluorescence imaging, and photodynamic therapy capacity. In vitro measurements demonstrate that the LPCDs can actively absorb apolipoproteins into the protein corona to enhance their uptakes in breast cancer cells. In vivo studies confirm that LPCDs can give accurate delineation of metastatic breast cancer foci from surrounding normal tissues with multimodal biomedical functions. The feasibility of using LPCDs as a multimodal imaging and cancer-targeting nanoplatform may provide impetus for developing precise yet facile protein corona-targeted delivery systems for future clinical practice.