Enhanced-fluorescent imaging and targeted therapy of liver cancer using highly luminescent carbon dots-conjugated foliate

• Published in: Materials Science & Engineering C 2020-11, Vol.116, p.111233-111233, Article 111233
• Main Authors: Wang, Shicai, Chen, Lin, Wang, Junli, Du, Jinglei, Li, Qiang, Gao, Yuduan, Yu, Shiping, Yang, Yongzhen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anticancer properties; Antitumor activity; Biocompatibility; Cancer; Carbon; Carbon dots; Doxorubicin; Doxorubicin - pharmacology; Drug delivery; Drug Delivery Systems; Enhanced-fluorescent imaging; Fluorescence; Fluoroscopic imaging; Folic Acid; Hepatocytes; Hepatoma; Highly luminescent carbon dots; Humans; Liver; Liver cancer; Liver Neoplasms - diagnostic imaging; Liver Neoplasms - drug therapy; Materials science; Targeted therapy
• ISSN: 0928-4931; 1873-0191
• DOI: 10.1016/j.msec.2020.111233

Carbon dots (CDs) have shown great potential in drug delivery and biological imaging applications. In this work, a doxorubicin (DOX) delivery carrier and imaging probe for liver cancer-targeted therapy was designed based on CDs with high fluorescence quantum yield (97%), aiming to enhance the antitumor activity and imaging efficiency. Folic acid (FA), which showed high expression in hepatoma cells, was used as targeting components to modify CDs (FA-CDs), and then FA-CDs-DOX was obtained by loading DOX. Results show that CDs and FA-CDs have good biocompatibility, and the DOX release from FA-CDs-DOX is targeted and selective. Confocal microscope demonstrates that FA-CDs-DOX has excellent ability of fluorescence imaging in liver cancer cells. The imaging in vivo shows the fluorescence intensity of FA-CDs-DOX is strong enough to penetrate tumor tissue and skin, further verifying its enhanced-fluorescent imaging effects. Tumor inhibition in vivo indicates that the targeting ability of FA-CDs-DOX is significantly higher than that of free DOX, showing obvious better therapeutic effect. To sum up, the targeted and fluorescent drug delivery system based on CDs with high fluorescence quantum yield show an excellent imaging in vivo and tumor inhibition effect, which provide a novel strategy for promoting the potential clinical application of CDs in liver cancer treatment. Enhanced-fluorescent imaging and targeted therapy of liver cancer using highly luminescent carbon dots-conjugated foliate was presented in this work. [Display omitted] •Carbon dots with high quantum yield were used as fluorescent drug delivery carrier.•Targeted carbon dots-based drug was designed to improve the antitumor activity.•Flow cytometry can quantify the release of doxorubicin.•The enhanced imaging effect in vivo was demonstrated by the combination of folic acid, carbon dots and doxorubicin.•Excellent therapeutic effect of carbon dots-based drug was confirmed.