Near-infrared phosphorescent carbon dots for sonodynamic precision tumor therapy

Abstract

Theranostic sonosensitizers with combined sonodynamic and near infrared (NIR) imaging modes are required for imaging guided sonodynamic therapy (SDT). It is challenging, however, to realize a single material that is simultaneously endowed with both NIR emitting and sonodynamic activities. Herein, we report the design of a class of NIR-emitting sonosensitizers from a NIR phosphorescent carbon dot (CD) material with a narrow bandgap (1.62 eV) and long-lived excited triplet states (11.4 μs), two of which can enhance SDT as thermodynamically and dynamically favorable factors under low-intensity ultrasound irradiation, respectively. The NIR-phosphorescent CDs are identified as bipolar quantum dots containing both p- and n-type surface functionalization regions that can drive spatial separation of e−–h+ pairs and fast transfer to reaction sites. Importantly, the cancer-specific targeting and high-level intratumor enrichment of the theranostic CDs are achieved by cancer cell membrane encapsulation for precision SDT with complete eradication of solid tumors by single injection and single irradiation. These results will open up a promising approach to engineer phosphorescent materials with long-lived triplet excited states for sonodynamic precision tumor therapy.

Enhanced sonodynamic therapy by carbon dots-shelled microbubbles with focused ultrasound

“…C-dots have been engineered as promising nanomaterials for several biomedical applications due to their low toxicity, high stability, and excellent solubility [17] , [29] , [30] . Recent literature has reported that US-induced inertial cavitation could break up oxygen-containing groups on the surface of C-dots to generate ROS [23] , [31] , leading to increased interest in the development of C-dots for SDT. However, low frequency and high energy US was required to produce inertial cavitation.…”

“…C-O groups and C = O groups) to generate oxygen free radical [19] , [20] ; (2) interact with ·O– and produce 1 O 2 and •OH [19] . Previous had reported that feasibility of using C-dots with US for SDT [21] , [22] . However, it has been challenging to translate C-dots–mediated SDT into in vivo applications since these C-dots required low-frequency, high-energy parameters (frequency of 20–50 kHz, energy of 200–500 W, and sonication duration of 600–1800 s) that would potentially induce thermal effect and unpredictable cavitation effect to damage biological tissues [19] , [23] .…”

“…Previous had reported that feasibility of using C-dots with US for SDT [21] , [22] . However, it has been challenging to translate C-dots–mediated SDT into in vivo applications since these C-dots required low-frequency, high-energy parameters (frequency of 20–50 kHz, energy of 200–500 W, and sonication duration of 600–1800 s) that would potentially induce thermal effect and unpredictable cavitation effect to damage biological tissues [19] , [23] . The occurrence of US-induced thermal effect and cavitation effect were increased as prolonging the US irradiation duration and lowing the US frequency, respectively [24] .…”

Recent developments in carbon dots: a biomedical application perspective

“…6c). 62 As shown in Fig. 6d, the same mouse was implanted with 143B and HeLa tumors simultaneously for in vivo NIR imaging after being intravenously injected with p–n-CD@143B or p–n-CDs.…”

A universal green approach for the synthesis of NPS-codoped carbon quantum dots with enhanced broad-spectrum antibacterial and antioxidant activities

“…[4][5][6] In contrast to conventional metal/ semiconductor quantum dots, CQDs have less toxicity and higher biocompatibility, which make them an ideal material to be utilized in biomedical elds. 7,8 Studies have shown that heteroatom doping can signicantly improve the properties of CDs. In this area, currently, extensive research is going on to establish easy and economic methods to synthesize heteroatom-doped CQDs.…”