Low-energy room-temperature carbon dots for targeted sensing of MET inhibitor capmatinib

Capmatinib (CMB) monitoring in biological fluids is critical for evaluating its pharmacokinetics, optimizing dosing, and minimizing toxicity. Accurate measurement is essential for ensuring therapeutic efficacy, enabling personalized treatment, and preventing adverse effects. Given the variability in patient metabolism and excretion, regular monitoring helps maintain CMB levels within the therapeutic range, improving treatment outcomes and minimizing the risk of drug resistance. This work presents an economical and energy-efficient strategy for preparing highly luminescent nitrogen-doped carbon dots (NCDs), employing 2,5-dihydroxy-1,4-benzoquinone alongside triethylenetetramine. The synthesized NCDs demonstrated excellent photostability and a high fluorescence quantum yield of 38.72%. Upon the addition of CMB, concentration-dependent fluorescence quenching was observed at 515 nm, which was attributed to the inner filter effect (IFE), with LOD of 3.6 nM. The NCDs exhibited high selectivity in detecting CMB, with minimal cross-reactivity from simultaneously present compounds. Recovery studies in real biological samples yielded rates between 97.4% and 105.3%, and RSDs were consistently below 4.11%. These results demonstrate the method's precision, reproducibility, and potential for reliable CMB detection in complex biological matrices.