Selective photothermal killing of cancer cells using LED-activated nucleus targeting fluorescent carbon dots

Hill, Stephen, Sheikh, Sadiyah, Zhang, Qiaoyu, Sueiro Ballesteros, Lorena, Herman, Andrew, Davis, Sean A, Morgan, David John ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6571-5731, Berry, Monica, Benito-Alifonso, David and Galan, M. Carmen 2019. Selective photothermal killing of cancer cells using LED-activated nucleus targeting fluorescent carbon dots. Nanoscale Advances 1 (8) , pp. 2840-2846. 10.1039/C9NA00293F

Preview

PDF - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (1MB) | Preview

Abstract

The development of effective theranostic probes in cancer therapy is hampered due to issues with selectivity and off-target toxicity. We report the selective LED-photothermal ablation of cervical (HeLa) cancer cells over human dermal fibroblasts (HDF) using a new class of green-emissive fluorescent carbon dots (FCDs). The FCDs can be easily prepared in one-pot using cheap and commercial starting materials. Physico-chemical characterization revealed that a surface coating of 2,5-deoxyfructosazine on a robust amorphous core renders the nanomaterial’s unique properties. We show that intracellular uptake mostly involves passive mechanisms in combination with intracellular DNA interactions to target the nucleus and that cancer cell selective killing is likely due to an increase in intracellular temperature in combination with ATP depletion, which is not observed upon of exposure to either the core FCD or the surface component individually. The selectivity of these nanoprobes and the lack of apparent production of toxic metabolic byproducts, makes these new nanomaterials promising agents in cancer therapy.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Chemistry Cardiff Catalysis Institute (CCI)
Publisher:	Royal Society of Chemistry
ISSN:	2516-0230
Funders:	EPSRC and ERC
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	23 July 2019
Date of Acceptance:	14 July 2019
Last Modified:	03 May 2023 16:05
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/124415

Citation Data

Cited 27 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item