Doxorubicin-conjugated D-glucosamine- and folate- bi-functionalised InP/ZnS quantum dots for cancer cells imaging and therapy

Abstract

Nanoscaled quantum dots (QDs), with unique optical properties have been used for the development of theranostics. Here, InP/ZnS QDs were synthesised and functionalised with folate (QD-FA), D-glucosamine (QD-GA) or both (QD-FA-GA). The bi-functionalised QDs were further conjugated with doxorubicin (QD-FA-GA-DOX). Optimum Indium to fatty acid (In:MA) ratio was 1:3.5. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) micrographs revealed spherical morphology for the QDs (11 nm). Energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) spectrum confirmed the chemical composition of the QDs. MTT analysis in the OVCAR-3 cells treated with bare QDs, QD-FA, QD-GA, QD-FA-GA and QD-FA-GA-DOX (0.2 mg/mL of QDs) after 24 h indicated low toxicity for the bare QDs and functionalised QDs (about 80-90% cell viability). QD-FA-GA-DOX nanoparticles elicited toxicity in the cells. Cellular uptake of the engineered QDs were investigated in both folate receptor (FR)-positive OVCAR-3 cells and FR-negative A549 cells using fluorescence microscopy and FACS flow cytometry. The FA-functionalised QDs showed significantly higher uptake in the FR-positive OVCAR-3 cells, nonetheless the GA-functionalised QDs resulted in an indiscriminate uptake in both cell lines. In conclusion, our findings indicated that DOX-conjugated FA-armed QDs can be used as theranostics for simultaneous imaging and therapy of cancer.

Chitosan‐based multifunctional nanomedicines and theranostics for targeted therapy of cancer

“…94,95 So far, many researchers have reported FA-conjugated polymeric micelles, macromolecules, liposomes, and NPs for the targeted delivery of anticancer agents or genes. [97][98][99][100][101][102][103][104][105][106][107][108] Among the different strategy, CS is a good choice for the FA conjugation because of its functional groups. Zhu et al synthesized CS-based micelles for cancer-specific targeted drug delivery and modified its surface with FA to target and deliver anticancer drugs to the FR-positive cancer cells.…”

“…Then, the FRs are recycled to the cell surface and participate in the transportation of more FA‐armed nanoconjugates . So far, many researchers have reported FA‐conjugated polymeric micelles, macromolecules, liposomes, and NPs for the targeted delivery of anticancer agents or genes . Among the different strategy, CS is a good choice for the FA conjugation because of its functional groups.…”

Magnetic Mixed Micelles Composed of a Non-Ionic Surfactant and Nitroxide Radicals Containing a d-Glucosamine Unit: Preparation, Stability, and Biomedical Application

“…Herein, we report on the novel metal-free mixed micelles including nitroxide radicals 4 n conjugated with a d -glucosamine unit as a tumor targeting site, because d -glucosamine derivatives are well-known to accumulate in tumor cells [20,21,22,23]. The obtained magnetic mixed micelles showed little toxicity, excellent in vitro MRI contrast ability, and high stability in the presence of an excess amount of ascorbic acid.…”

Comparative studies of biological activity of cadmium-based quantum dots with different surface modifications

“…Due to the intensive fluorescence of QDs, they may be used in medical diagnostics for determination of certain diseases, including infectious bacterial and viral ones, as well as for detection and localization of cancer cells (Kim et al 2018;Tram et al 2016;Vasudevan et al 2015). Besides, polymeric (Niu et al 2017) gold nanoparticle-based drug carriers (Farooq et al 2018;Ramalingam et al 2018) were reported to be used in medicines delivery (Javanbakht and Namazi 2018;Ranjbar-Navazi et al 2018). The long-term monitoring of different processes in vitro and in vivo is also possible due to the stability of their fluorescence (Michalet et al 2005;Ni et al 2018;Vu et al 2015).…”