4.6 Article

Chemical Modifications of Porous Carbon Nanospheres Obtained from Ubiquitous Precursors for Targeted Drug Delivery and Live Cell Imaging

Journal

ACS SUSTAINABLE CHEMISTRY & ENGINEERING
Volume 6, Issue 7, Pages 8503-8514

Publisher

AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.8b00785

Keywords

Porous carbon nanosphere; Drug delivery; Live cell imaging; Folic acid; Polyethylenimine

Funding

  1. Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance fellowship [IA/I/13/1/500885]
  2. Department of Science and Technology Science and Engineering Board (DST-SERB), Government of India [EMR/2016/001703]
  3. Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi

Ask authors/readers for more resources

Cost-effective anti-cancer drug delivery vehicles that can ensure controlled and targeted transportation of drug molecules are pertinent to modern day biomedical applications. Minimally toxic 9-13 nm diameter porous carbon nanospheres (PNs) were synthesized by oxidative cutting of porous carbon matrices (PCs) obtained by carbonization of pasture grass, human hair and sucrose. Among them, the grass derived PNs (PN-G) with superior surface area, porosity and graphitic content demonstrate a significant loading of the drug both by chemical binding and physisorption. Polyethylenimine (PEI) and folic acid (FA) functionalization maintain therapeutic efficacy of the drug doxorubicin (DOX) to the targeted folate receptor (FR) overexpressed human cervical cancer cells (HeLa) and human breast cancer cells (MDA-MB-231) through receptor mediated endocytosis whereas FR deficient normal cells (human embryonic kidney 293) exhibit substantially lower endocytosis under identical conditions. Moreover, upon loading cell-impermeable propidium iodide (PI), the PNs display superior activity toward near-infrared (NIR) live cell imaging in HeLa cells whereby due to a higher binding affinity of PI with the nucleic acids, the PI-to-PN energy transfer quenched fluorescence is recovered. This dual functionality of controlled and targeted drug delivery and photobleaching resistant live cell imaging by the cost-effective PNs has larger implications in nanomedicine research and technology. Porous carbon nanospheres derived from abundant resources act as highly efficient and cost-effective nanocarriers for targeted anticancer drug delivery and live cell imaging.

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.6
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available