Engineering Mitochondriotropic Carbon Dots for Targeting Cancer Cells

Pharmaceuticals

Alexandros Athanasopoulos¹  Dimitris Tsiourvas²  Zili Sideratou²  Archontia Kaminari²  Eleni Nikoli²  Elias Sakellis² 

[1] National Centre for Scientific Research “Demokritos”, Institute of Biosciences and Applications, 15310 Aghia Paraskevi, Greece;National Centre for Scientific Research “Demokritos”, Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, 15310 Aghia Paraskevi, Greece;

关键词: carbon dots;    mitochondrial targeting;    bioimaging;    cancer cells;    membrane potential;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ph14090932

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Aiming to understand and enhance the capacity of carbon dots (CDs) to transport through cell membranes and target subcellular organelles—in particular, mitochondria—a series of nitrogen-doped CDs were prepared by the one-step microwave-assisted pyrolysis of citric acid and ethylenediamine. Following optimization of the reaction conditions for maximum fluorescence, functionalization at various degrees with alkylated triphenylphosphonium functional groups of two different alkyl chain lengths afforded a series of functionalized CDs that exhibited either lysosome or mitochondria subcellular localization. Further functionalization with rhodamine B enabled enhanced fluorescence imaging capabilities in the visible spectrum and allowed the use of low quantities of CDs in relevant experiments. It was thus possible, by the appropriate selection of the alkyl chain length and degree of functionalization, to attain successful mitochondrial targeting, while preserving non-toxicity and biocompatibility. In vitro cell experiments performed on normal as well as cancer cell lines proved their non-cytotoxic character and imaging potential, even at very low concentrations, by fluorescence microscopy. Precise targeting of mitochondria is feasible with carefully designed CDs that, furthermore, are specifically internalized in cells and cell mitochondria of high transmembrane potential and thus exhibit selective uptake in malignant cells compared to normal cells.

【 授权许可】

Unknown