Theranostic Carbon Dots with Innovative NIR-II Emission for in Vivo Renal-Excreted Optical Imaging and Photothermal Therapy.
Youbin LiGongxun BaiSongjun ZengJianhua HaoPublished in: ACS applied materials & interfaces (2019)
Carbon dots (CDs) with low biotoxicity, high photostability, and well-controlled size are highly desirable imaging agents for optical bioimaging. However, most of the CDs triggered by ultraviolet/blue light present visible/first near-infrared emissions shorter than 820 nm, impairing their imaging applications in vivo by low penetration depth. Hence, developing novel CD-based materials with second near-infrared (NIR-II) emission located in 1000-1700 nm region is an urgent task. Here, a novel NIR-II-emitting CD-based nanoprobe triggered by 808 nm laser is developed. The designed CDs with 900-1200 nm luminescence possess high quantum yield (QY-0.4%) and high biocompatibility, which have proven to be effective probes for in vivo NIR-II bioimaging. Notably, nearly 65% CDs are excreted from mouse urine within 6 h, demonstrating the rapid renal clearance of CDs. Furthermore, the designed CDs also exhibit high photothermal efficiency (30.6%), making them ideal materials for thermal ablation of cancer. Our findings pave the way of designing a multifunctional CD-based theranostic platform for simultaneously integrating the advanced NIR-II bioimaging and photothermal therapy of cancer.
Keyphrases
- quantum dots
- photodynamic therapy
- fluorescence imaging
- high resolution
- fluorescent probe
- sensitive detection
- living cells
- energy transfer
- papillary thyroid
- drug release
- light emitting
- drug delivery
- squamous cell carcinoma
- mass spectrometry
- visible light
- risk assessment
- single molecule
- optical coherence tomography
- nk cells
- atrial fibrillation
- high throughput
- heavy metals
- solid state
- single cell