1. Polarity-Sensitive Polymer Carbon Dots Prepared at Room-Temperature for Monitoring the Cell Polarity Dynamics during Autophagy
- Author
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Shu Jun Zhen, Yuan Fang Li, Cheng Zhi Huang, De Yu Li, Dan Yuan, Jia Hui He, Rong Sheng Li, and Jia Hui Liu
- Subjects
Materials science ,Biocompatibility ,Polarity (physics) ,Cellular polarity ,02 engineering and technology ,010402 general chemistry ,01 natural sciences ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,Quantum Dots ,Cell polarity ,Autophagy ,Humans ,General Materials Science ,chemistry.chemical_classification ,Cell Polarity ,Polymer ,021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology ,Fluorescence ,Trehalose ,Carbon ,0104 chemical sciences ,Polymerization ,chemistry ,Biophysics ,0210 nano-technology ,HeLa Cells - Abstract
Taking the advantages of excellent optical properties, biocompatibility, and photostability of carbon dots, herein, we developed polarity-sensitive polymer carbon dots (PCDs) for visualizing of cellular polarity to real-time monitoring autophagy changes without perturbing the cellular status. The PCDs can be prepared by simply mixing dopamine (DA), H2O2, and o-phenylenediamine (o-PDA) in a common beaker without the need for any special equipment or external energy supply, and the preparation could be completed within 3 min at room temperature. Interestingly, the polarity-sensitive PCDs could emit various types of fluorescence and are insensitive to the excitation light when dispersed in different water/dioxane systems with different polarities. Based on the polarity-sensitive emission of the PCDs, the change of polarity during autophagy has been successfully monitored in living cells. Moreover, the change of polarity detected by PCDs is autophagy-specific (does not occur during apoptosis), occurs under different autophagy-inducing situations (starvation, rapamycin, and trehalose), and requires a normal autophagic flux, showing that PCDs rapidly prepared by polymerization cross-linking at room temperature can be functionally applied in the case of autophagy-related physiological or pathological processes.
- Published
- 2020