Magnetofluorescent nanohybrid comprising polyglycerol grafted carbon dots and iron oxides: Colloidal synthesis and applications in cellular imaging and magnetically enhanced drug delivery

Publication date: 1 January 2019Source: Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces, Volume 173Author(s): Yu Wen, Meiyun Xu, Xin Liu, Xiaoya Jin, Jiaqi Kang, Di Xu, Houyi Sang, Peng Gao, Xiao Chen, Li ZhaoAbstractMultifunctional nanohybrids are attracting increasing attention for potential biomedical applications such as bioimaging and drug delivery due to their combined advantages of individual components. However, challenges in the improvement of their synthesis and colloidal stability to facilitate practical biomedical applications still remain. In this work, we report an efficient synthetic approach to fabricate magnetofluorescent nanohybrid (IO-PG-CD) comprising fluorescent carbon dots (CDs) and magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (IOs) through polyglycerol (PG) mediated covalent linkage in aqueous media. CDs and IOs are first grafted with PG layer, and then functionalized with carboxyl and amino groups, respectively. The resulting CD-PG-COOH and IO-PG-NH2 handled as simple chemical compounds are integrated through EDC/NHS crosslinking to obtain the desired IO-PG-CD nanohybrid. The unprecedented hydrophilicity of PG layer endows IO-PG-CD nanohybrid with excellent colloidal stability in various physiological media, facilitating biomedical applications in vitro and in vivo. IO-PG-CD nanohybrid exhibits low cytotoxicity and its uptake by cells can be obviously enhanced by external magnetic attraction. The internalized IO-PG-CD nanohybrid emits multicolor fluorescence as observed b...
Source: Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces - Category: Biochemistry Source Type: research