Multifunctional Carbon Dots Based Nanoparticles Coupling Optical and pH-Dependent Drug Release Properties as Drug Delivery Platforms.

A kind of red emissive carbon dots (R-CDs) that were synthesized by a hydrothermal method reacted with PEG polymer (mPEG-CHO) as nanocarriers (R-CD@mPEG-CHO). DOX was selected to be the model drug and loaded on the surface of R-CDs by physical adsorption. The mPEG-CHO polymer reacted with R-CDs and the benzoic acid-amine bond was formed through click reaction, which enabled the R-CD@mPEG-CHO to have pH responsive ability in tumor microenvironment and achieved controlled drug release. And PEGylation can suppress drug burst release in vitro. A potential multi-functional nanocarrier system was successfully built. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]