Recent progress of carbon dots in targeted bioimaging and cancer therapy

Carbon dots (CDs), as one new class of carbon nanomaterials with various structure and extraordinary physicochemical properties, have attracted tremendous interest for their potential applications in tumor theranostics, especially in targeted bioimaging and therapy. In these areas, CDs and its derivatives have been employed as highly efficient imaging agent for photoluminescence bioimaging of tumors cells. With unique structure, optical and/or dose attention properties, CDs have been harnessed in various nanotheranostic strategies for diverse tumors through integrating with other functional nanoparticles or utilizing their inherent physical properties. Up to now, CDs have been approved as novel biomaterials by their excellent performances in precise targeted bioimaging and therapy for tumors. Herein, the latest progress in the development of CDs in targeted bioimaging and tumor therapy are reviewed. Meanwhile, the challenges and future prospects of the application of CDs in promising nanotheranostic strategies are discussed and proposed.