TY - JOUR
T1 - Triphenylphosphonium-Derived Bright Green Fluorescent Carbon Dots for Mitochondrial Targeting and Rapid Selective Detection of Tetracycline
AU - Rajendran, Sathish
AU - Zichri, Shani Ben
AU - Usha Vipinachandran, Varsha
AU - Jelinek, Raz
AU - Bhunia, Susanta Kumar
N1 - Funding Information:
Sathish R. and Varsha U.V. acknowledge VIT University for providing fellowship and seed money as a research grant. S. K. Bhunia expresses appreciation to “VIT SEED GRANT”, DST INSPIRE funding (DST/ INSPIRE Faculty Award /2018/DST/INSPIRE/04/2018/002484), and SERB (SRG/2020/000645) for financial support to carry out this research work.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Wiley-VCH GmbH
PY - 2021/5/1
Y1 - 2021/5/1
N2 - Although various fluorescent-based nanoparticles are treated as cellular imaging probes, approaching the construction of a biocompatible subcellular imaging probe is challenging. At the same time, the recognition of wasted pharmaceutical drugs by some fluorescent nanoprobes is important and urgently required. We report a “structural memory” concept for simple one-pot synthesis of bright green fluorescent (quantum yield of up to 61%) carbon dots (C-dots) from triphenylphosphonium (TPP) as a carbon precursor that will simultaneously act as an effective vehicle for mitochondria labeling in cancer cells and as a selective tetracycline sensor. The ubiquitous TPP residues upon the C-dots’ surface easily recognize the cellular mitochondria. Tetracycline has been selectively and instantaneously detected through rapid fluorescence on-off response from C-dots where other drugs remained silent in nature, even after longer incubation. This quenching response is ascribed to the static quenching effect and position of functional groups of the targeted drug which can play a dominating role. The reason for strong fluorescence exhibition from C-dots has been well explained by considering different factors. Such types of C-dots have been shown to be universal mitochondria-targeting nanoprobes, non-cytotoxic, and effective as a tetracycline detector. This finding should open a new avenue for in-vivo therapeutic application and sensing of pharmaceutical drugs in real clinical applications.
AB - Although various fluorescent-based nanoparticles are treated as cellular imaging probes, approaching the construction of a biocompatible subcellular imaging probe is challenging. At the same time, the recognition of wasted pharmaceutical drugs by some fluorescent nanoprobes is important and urgently required. We report a “structural memory” concept for simple one-pot synthesis of bright green fluorescent (quantum yield of up to 61%) carbon dots (C-dots) from triphenylphosphonium (TPP) as a carbon precursor that will simultaneously act as an effective vehicle for mitochondria labeling in cancer cells and as a selective tetracycline sensor. The ubiquitous TPP residues upon the C-dots’ surface easily recognize the cellular mitochondria. Tetracycline has been selectively and instantaneously detected through rapid fluorescence on-off response from C-dots where other drugs remained silent in nature, even after longer incubation. This quenching response is ascribed to the static quenching effect and position of functional groups of the targeted drug which can play a dominating role. The reason for strong fluorescence exhibition from C-dots has been well explained by considering different factors. Such types of C-dots have been shown to be universal mitochondria-targeting nanoprobes, non-cytotoxic, and effective as a tetracycline detector. This finding should open a new avenue for in-vivo therapeutic application and sensing of pharmaceutical drugs in real clinical applications.
KW - carbon dots
KW - fluorescence quantum yield
KW - mitochondria labeling
KW - selective tetracycline detection
KW - triphenylphosphonium
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85102865812&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/cnma.202100125
DO - 10.1002/cnma.202100125
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85102865812
VL - 7
SP - 545
EP - 552
JO - ChemNanoMat
JF - ChemNanoMat
SN - 2199-692X
IS - 5
ER -