Hi everyone
I synthesized carbon dot with folic acid and citric acid with DMF solvent. After analyzing, it was found that there is no problem with the synthesis.
But using a fluorescent microscope, cell uptake is not observed in the cancer cell line (ID8).
Can you help me in this regard?
Hello Faezeh Zeinali
Some thoughts
For cancer cell lines, the cellular uptake of carbon dots is generally efficient.
Mammalian cell membranes are composed of numerous barriers which restrict what comes in and out of the cell (i.e., hydrophobic lipid bi-layer, membrane channels, transporters, protein interactions, etc.). Different cellular pathways could be used to pass the cell membrane and enter a cell. Entry into the cell is not often exclusively attributed to one type of mechanism and may proceed via multiple simultaneous pathways. This can result in difficulty predicting target destination transport dynamics.
Also, the pathway for cellular uptake will be dependent on numerous factors such as particle size, shape, surface charge, surface functionalization, band gap energy, porosity, crystallinity, solubility, and associations with other dots and macromolecules. Each of these factors will have varying associations with different cell types.
Particles which are too small may be required in ample concentrations to facilitate energy dependent cellular entry. Receptor driven cellular uptake often requires specific size, charge, ligand densities, and enthalpies for internalization. Decreased particle size results in faster degradation of carbon core through enzymatic attack. Carbon nanoparticles >10 nm is increasingly endocytosed into cells over smaller counterparts. Positively charged particles may have increased cellular uptake over negatively charged particles but also interact with negatively charged biological entities (i.e., nucleic acids, proteins, etc.) which limits their targeting capacity.
I have attached a few articles for your reference that may be helpful.
Article Carbon “Quantum” Dots for Fluorescence Labeling of Cells
Article Carbon Dot Therapeutic Platforms: Administration, Distributi...
https://www.hindawi.com/journals/omcl/2022/3483073/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0168365910002075?via%3Dihub
https://www.nature.com/articles/nmat2442
https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=The%20role%20of%20surface%20charge%20in%20cellular%20uptake%20and%20cytotoxicity%20of%20medical%20nanoparticles&author=E.%20Fr%C3%B6hlich&publication_year=2012
Article Fluorescent carbon dots as intracellular imaging probes
Best.
Hello Malcolm Nobre
Thank you very much for your complete answer
Best.
You have to check emission of carbon dot in cell culture media first, if it is ok then probably it has high negative surface charge which creates obstacle for interaction with the folate receptors overexpressed cell line. After confirmation, you can do suface modifications with amine terminated ligands. I think your problem may be solved.
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