• An Overview On the Application of Functionalized Carbon Dots for cancer cell monitoring
  • Mehdi Amirfazli,1 Hamide Ehtesabi,2,*
    1. Faculty of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shahid Beheshti University
    2. Faculty of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shahid Beheshti University


  • Introduction: Folic acid-conjugated carbon dots (FA-CDs) as a fluorescent nanoprobe were fabricated for identifying cancer cells visually. Green luminescent carbon dots (CDs) from active dry yeast (ADY) were readily prepared in scale-up to reach macroscopic production with a high yield of ~50% via a facile and rapid microwave approach. The as-prepared CDs were further combined with folic acid (FA) by covalent bonding to fabricate the FA-CDs for identification of cancer cells over- expressing folate receptor (FR). Experimental outcomes demonstrated that the resultant FA-CDs noninvasively entered into cancer cells via receptor-mediated endocytosis and could differentiate FR-positive HepG2 cells from a cell mixture by fluorescence imaging, which suggests a promising prospect of the FA-CDs as an efficient probe for cancer diagnosis and succeeding personalized therapy (Zhang et al., 2018).
  • Methods: The as-prepared CDs possessed active amino groups where the CDs could be further engineered for the conjugation with FA. The uptake of the as-synthesized FA-CDs by FR positive MCF-7 cells (FR++) and HepG-2 cells (FR+) via receptor-mediated endocytosis was demonstrated by confocal laser scanning microscopy, which is further verified by a comparative study with FR-negative PC-12 cells (FR-). The bright fluorescence can be observed in FR positive MCF-7 cells while negligible fluorescence was observed in PC-12 cells with low-expressed FR, demonstrating that FA-CDs could accurately identify FR-positive cancer cells from normal cells. The FA-CDs shared favorable biocompatibility, excellent optical properties and ultra-low toxicity etc( Jiao et al., 2019).
  • Results: Soleymani et al. reported a method to determine the FR expressed cancer cells based on the selective bonding of the folic acid/folate (FA) to the FR-positive tumor cells. The folate decorated Nitrogen-doped graphene quantum dots (N-GQDs) were utilized as selective targeting of the MKN 45 cells. Fluorescent microscopy imaging investigations revealed that the produced FA conjugated N- GQDs could specifically attach to the target FR-positive tumor cells. Due to the fluorescence emission of N-GQDs, the developed cytosensor is free from attaching any fluorescent ligand i.e. Rhodamine B to capture the florescence microscopy images and also flow cytometry analysis. In vitro toxicity tests has shown low toxicity of the synthesized N-GQDs where the minimum viability is 68 %. The proposed FA-N-GQDs based cytosensor provides a novel platform for detection of MKN 45, HT 29 and MCF 7 cancer cell lines which could be used in multi-channel cancer diagnosis biodevice(Soleymani etal., 2018).
  • Conclusion: Folic acid-conjugated carbon dots (FA-CDs) as a fluorescent nanoprobe were fabricated for identifying cancer cells visually. Green luminescent carbon dots (CDs) from active dry yeast (ADY) were readily prepared in scale-up to reach macroscopic pro- duction with a high yield of ~50% via a facile and rapid microwave approach. The as-prepared CDs were further combined with folic acid (FA) by covalent bonding to fabricate the FA-CDs for identification of cancer cells over- expressing folate receptor (FR). Experimental outcomes demonstrated that the resultant FA-CDs noninvasively entered into cancer cells via receptor-mediated endocytosis and could differentiate FR-positive HepG2 cells from a cell mixture by fluorescence imaging, which suggests a promising prospect of the FA-CDs as an efficient probe for cancer diagnosis and succeeding personalized therapy (Zhang eta., 2018).
  • Keywords: Fluorescent-core CQDs were synthesized through carbonization of ammonium citrate via dry heating. In