1. Folic acid-conjugated nitrogen-doped graphene quantum dots as a fluorescent diagnostic material for MCF-7 cells
- Author
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Chaorong Li, Shixuan Feng, Jiaqi Pan, and Yingying Zheng
- Subjects
Materials science ,Cell Survival ,Nitrogen ,Bioengineering ,02 engineering and technology ,Confocal scanning microscopy ,Conjugated system ,010402 general chemistry ,01 natural sciences ,law.invention ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,Folic Acid ,law ,Quantum Dots ,Humans ,General Materials Science ,Electrical and Electronic Engineering ,Cytotoxicity ,Fluorescent Dyes ,Diethylamine ,Microscopy, Confocal ,Molecular Structure ,Graphene ,Mechanical Engineering ,General Chemistry ,021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology ,Fluorescence ,0104 chemical sciences ,chemistry ,Mechanics of Materials ,Cancer cell ,MCF-7 Cells ,Graphite ,0210 nano-technology ,Citric acid ,Nuclear chemistry - Abstract
This paper reports the preparation and application of folic acid-conjugated nitrogen-doped graphene quantum dots (N-GQDs) as a fluorescent diagnostic material for MCF-7 cells of breast cancer. N-GQDs were prepared by a hydrothermal method using citric acid as the carbon source and diethylamine as the nitrogen source. The doping of different amounts of nitrogen content was effectively controlled by diethylamine. As the amount of nitrogen increased, more binding sites on the N-GQDs were supplied to the folic acid. Laser confocal scanning microscopy showed that increased folic acid binding facilitated the recognition of and entry to cancer cells, which made the labeled cells emit a stronger fluorescence and thus the cancer cells could be better detected. Cytotoxicity tests showed that the material was of low cytotoxicity, making it a promising prospect for fluorescent probes.
- Published
- 2020
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