Hyaluronic acid conjugated nitrogen-doped graphene quantum dots for identification of human breast cancer cells

Quantum Dot Research in Breast Cancer: Challenges and Prospects

The multifaceted role of quantum dots (QDs) in breast cancer research highlights significant advancements in diagnostics, targeted therapy, and drug delivery systems. This comprehensive review addresses the development of precise imaging techniques for early cancer detection and the use of QDs in enhancing the specificity of therapeutic delivery, particularly in challenging cases like triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). The paper also discusses the critical understanding of QDs' interactions with cancer cells, offering insights into their potential for inducing cytotoxic effects and facilitating gene therapy. Limitations such as biocompatibility, toxicity concerns, and the transition from laboratory to clinical practice are critically analyzed. Future directions emphasize safer, non-toxic QD development, improved targeting mechanisms, and the integration of QDs into personalized medicine, aiming to overcome the current challenges and enhance breast cancer management.

Tumor diagnosis using carbon-based quantum dots: Detection based on the hallmarks of cancer

Carbon-based quantum dots (CQDs) have been shown to have promising application value in tumor diagnosis. Their use, however, is severely hindered by the complicated nature of the nanostructures in the CQDs. Furthermore, it seems impossible to formulate the mechanisms involved using the inadequate theoretical frameworks that are currently available for CQDs. In this review, we re-consider the structure-property relationships of CQDs and summarize the current state of development of CQDs-based tumor diagnosis based on biological theories that are fully developed. The advantages and deficiencies of recent research on CQDs-based tumor diagnosis are thus explained in terms of the manifestation of nine essential changes in cell physiology. This review makes significant progress in addressing related problems encountered with other nanomaterials.

Multifunctional polysaccharide nanoprobes for biological imaging

Imaging and tracking biological targets or processes play an important role in revealing molecular mechanisms and disease states. Bioimaging via optical, nuclear, or magnetic resonance techniques enables high resolution, high sensitivity, and high depth imaging from the whole animal down to single cells via advanced functional nanoprobes. To overcome the limitations of single-modality imaging, multimodality nanoprobes have been engineered with a variety of imaging modalities and functionalities. Polysaccharides are sugar-containing bioactive polymers with superior biocompatibility, biodegradability, and solubility. The combination of polysaccharides with single or multiple contrast agents facilitates the development of novel nanoprobes with enhanced functions for biological imaging. Nanoprobes constructed with clinically applicable polysaccharides and contrast agents hold great potential for clinical translations. This review briefly introduces the basics of different imaging modalities and polysaccharides, then summarizes the recent progress of polysaccharide-based nanoprobes for biological imaging in various diseases, emphasizing bioimaging with optical, nuclear, and magnetic resonance techniques. The current issues and future directions regarding the development and applications of polysaccharide nanoprobes are further discussed.

Recent Breakthroughs in Using Quantum Dots for Cancer Imaging and Drug Delivery Purposes

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Because each person's cancer may be unique, diagnosing and treating cancer is challenging. Advances in nanomedicine have made it possible to detect tumors and quickly investigate tumor cells at a cellular level in contrast to prior diagnostic techniques. Quantum dots (QDs) are functional nanoparticles reported to be useful for diagnosis. QDs are semiconducting tiny nanocrystals, 2-10 nm in diameter, with exceptional and useful optoelectronic properties that can be tailored to sensitively report on their environment. This review highlights these exceptional semiconducting QDs and their properties and synthesis methods when used in cancer diagnostics. The conjugation of reporting or binding molecules to the QD surface is discussed. This review summarizes the most recent advances in using QDs for in vitro imaging, in vivo imaging, and targeted drug delivery platforms in cancer applications.

Hyaluronic acid-graphene oxide quantum dots nanoconjugate as dual purpose drug delivery and therapeutic agent in meta-inflammation

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) predominantly considered a metabolic disease is now being considered an inflammatory disease as well due to the involvement of meta-inflammation. Obesity-induced adipose tissue inflammation (ATI) is one of the earliest phenomena in the case of meta-inflammation, leading to the advent of insulin resistance (IR) and T2DM. The key events of ATI are orchestrated by macrophages, which aggravate the inflammatory state in the tissue upon activation, ultimately leading to systemic chronic low-grade inflammation and Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH) through the involvement of proinflammatory cytokines. The CD44 receptor on macrophages is overexpressed in ATI, NASH, and IR. Therefore, we developed a CD44 targeted Hyaluronic Acid functionalized Graphene Oxide Quantum Dots (GOQD-HA) nanocomposite for tissue-specific delivery of metformin. Metformin-loaded GOQD-HA (GOQD-HA-Met) successfully downregulated the expression of proinflammatory cytokines and restored antioxidant status at lower doses than free metformin in both palmitic acid-induced RAW264.7 cells and diet induced obese mice. Our study revealed that the GOQD-HA nanocarrier enhanced the efficacy of Metformin primarily by acting as a therapeutic agent apart from being a drug delivery platform. The therapeutic properties of GOQD-HA stem from both HA and GOQD having anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties respectively. This study unravels the function of GOQD-HA as a targeted drug delivery option for metformin in meta-inflammation where the nanocarrier itself acts as a therapeutic agent.

The detection of the captured circulating tumor cells on the core-shell nanofibrous membrane using hyaluronic acid-functionalized graphene quantum dots

In recent years, cancerous cases have increased remarkably worldwide, and metastasis is the leading cause of death. Therefore, research on the early detection of cancer and metastasis has expanded to aid successful cancer treatment. Here in this paper, at the first step, an electrospun nanofibrous membrane (NFM) with a core-shell structure was fabricated from PCL and HA to achieve cancer cell capturing (about 75% of cells). On the other hand, hyaluronic acid (HA)-functionalized graphene quantum dots (GQDs) were used to detect captured cancer cells on NFM through the changes in photoluminescence intensity. Therefore, CD44 receptor-HA interaction is the main principle used for both entrapment and detection of cancer cells. Results demonstrated the GQD-HA fluorescent intensity of solution decreased through the increase of the captured cancer cell numbers on NFM, which is related to the more adsorption of GQD nanocomposites to the CD44 receptors. In contrast, this intensity for noncancerous cells was steady with any cell concentrations. This difference shows the system's remarkable selectivity and specificity, which can be crucial in fluorescent imaging for accurate cancer diagnosis.

A review of graphene quantum dots and their potential biomedical applications

Today, nanobiotechnology is a pioneering technology in biomedicine. Every day, new nanomaterials are synthesized with elevated physiochemical properties for better diagnosis and treatment of diseases. One advancing class of materials is the Graphene family. Among different kinds of graphene derivatives, graphene quantum dots (GQDs) show fantastic optical, electrical, and electrochemical features originating from their unique quantum confinement effect. Due to the distinct properties of GQD, including large surface-to-volume ratio, low cytotoxicity, and easy functionalization, this nanomaterial has gone popular in biomedical field. Herein, a short overview of different strategies developed for GQD synthesis and functionalization is discussed. In the following, the most recent progress of GQD based nanomaterials in different biomedical fields, including bio-imaging, drug/gene delivery, antimicrobial, tissue engineering, and biosensors, are reviewed.

Calcium and phosphorus co-doped carbon dots enhance osteogenic differentiation for calvarial defect repairin situ

Calvarial bone defect remains a clinical challenge due to the lack of efficient osteo-inductive agent. Herein, a novel calcium and phosphorus codoped carbon dot (Ca/P-CD) for bone regeneration was synthesized using phosphoethanolamine and calcium gluconate as precursors. The resultant Ca/P-CDs exhibited ultra-small size, stable excitation dependent emission spectra and favorable dispersibility in water. Moreover, Ca/P-CDs with good biocompatibility rapidly entered the cytoplasm through endocytosis and increased the expression of bone differentiation genes. After mixing with temperature-sensitive hydrogel, Ca/P-CDs were injectedin situinto calvarial defect and promoted the repair of bone injury. These Ca/P-CDs provide a new treatment method for the bone repair and should be expended the application in the biomedical fields.

An upgraded 2D nanosheet-based FRET biosensor: insights into avoiding background and eliminating effects of background fluctuations

We demonstrated a new class of 2D nanosheet-based FRET biosensor utilizing vertically oriented MoS₂ nanosheets on a magnetic nanocarrier. Compared with the non-separated biosensor under identical conditions, this upgraded one can avoid the background signal of the system and eliminate the effects of background fluctuations, which produces more excellent detection methods.