Design and synthesis of highly fluorescent and stable fullerene nanoparticles as probes for folic acid detection and targeted cancer cell imaging

• Published in: Nanotechnology Vol. 32; no. 19; p. 195501
• Main Authors: Ma, Yihan, Fu, Sheng, Tan, Yixuan, Zhang, Aiqing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England 07.05.2021
• Subjects: Animals; Chlorocebus aethiops; COS Cells; Drug Stability; Fluorescent Dyes - analysis; Fluorescent Dyes - chemistry; Fluorescent Dyes - metabolism; Folic Acid - analysis; Fullerenes - analysis; Fullerenes - chemistry; Fullerenes - metabolism; HeLa Cells; Humans; Microscopy, Fluorescence; Neoplasms - chemistry; Neoplasms - metabolism; Particle Size
• ISSN: 0957-4484; 1361-6528; 1361-6528
• DOI: 10.1088/1361-6528/abdf02

Rational design and construction of fullerene derivatives play significant roles in the development of applications for sensing, marking and imaging in biomedical fields. In the present work, a novel type of C 60 fluorescent nanoparticle (C 60 FNP) was synthesized by a combination of thiol–ene chemistry and modification with folic acid (FA). The as-prepared C 60 FNPs exhibited intense blue luminescence with a relatively high quantum yield of 26%, which is higher than that of any other reported fluorescent fullerene-based nanomaterial. Moreover, they revealed superior photobleaching resistance under constant UV lamp illumination for 5 h and excellent photostablity after 9 months of storage in water. Due to the mutual hydrogen bond interaction, the obtained C 60 FNPs were capable of acting as a sensitive and specific probe for FA detection and quantification, with a liner range of 0 to 80 μ M and a detection limit of 0.24 μ M. Satisfactory recoveries (95.4%–105.2%) were obtained from a series of actual samples, further confirming the feasibility of this nanoprobe. Additionally, taking advantage of the FA moiety, the C 60 FNPs had easy access to penetrate into cancer cells with higher expression levels of folate receptors, thereby achieving the function of targeted cellular imaging.