Functionalization of graphene oxide nanostructures improves photoluminescence and facilitates their use as optical probes in preclinical imagingстатья
Статья опубликована в высокорейтинговом журнале
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Статья опубликована в журнале из списка Web of Science и/или Scopus
Дата последнего поиска статьи во внешних источниках: 15 июля 2015 г.
Аннотация:Recently reported photoluminescent nanographene oxides (nGOs), i.e. nanographene oxidised with a sulfuric/
nitric acid mixture (SNOx method), have tuneable photoluminescence and are scalable, simple
and fast to produce optical probes. This material belongs to the vast class of photoluminescent carbon
nanostructures, including carbon dots, nanodiamonds (NDs), graphene quantum dots (GQDs), all of
which demonstrate a variety of properties that are attractive for biomedical imaging such as low toxicity
and stable photoluminescence. In this study, the nGOs were organically surface-modified with poly(ethylene
glycol)–poly(ethylene imine) (PEG–PEI) copolymers tagged with folic acid as the affinity ligand for
cancer cells expressing folate receptors. The functionalization enhanced both the cellular uptake and
quantum efficiency of the photoluminescence as compared to non-modified nGOs. The nGOs exhibited
an excitation dependent photoluminescence that facilitated their detection with a wide range of microscope
configurations. The functionalized nGOs were non-toxic, they were retained in the stained cell
population over a period of 8 days and they were distributed equally between daughter cells. We have
evaluated their applicability in in vitro and in vivo (chicken embryo CAM) models to visualize and track
migratory cancer cells. The good biocompatibility and easy detection of the functionalized nGOs suggest
that they could address the limitations faced with quantum dots and organic fluorophores in long-term
in vivo biomedical imaging.