title: Preparation and biological evaluation of photoluminescent carbonaceous nanospheres.
abstract: Carbon nanospheres (CNP) possess several unique properties that render CNP superior to traditional organic dyes and quantum dots in the biological application. However, the interaction of CNP with biological systems was far from well-known. In this study, a simple method using cocoon silk was used to synthesize photoluminescent CNP. The particle size of CNP was 100.6 nm with well dispersity. The excitation/emission wavelength was 340 nm and 442 nm. Cellular uptake demonstrated the uptake of CNP by A549 cells was a time-, concentration- and energy-dependent procedure. Endosome was involved in the uptake rather than mitochondria. Through several uptake inhibitors, it showed the uptake was energy-dependent and mainly mediated by clathrin-mediated endocytosis. In vivo, CNP were mainly distributed in heart and lung, while only a modest amount of CNP was distributed in spleen, liver and kidney. The distribution in tumor was relatively low, which made CNP a candidate for heart cell imaging. At as high as 2mg/mL, CNP showed no obvious toxicity to cells. The hemolysis rate of CNP was also lower than 10%. These results suggested CNP was relatively safe in biological application.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Smart Drug Delivery (Fudan University), Ministry of Education, Fudan University, 826 Zhangheng Road, Shanghai 201203, China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Drug Targeting and Drug Delivery Systems, West China School of Pharmacy, Sichuan University, No. 17, Block 3, Southern Renmin Road, Chengdu 610041, China.
authors.forename: Jiantao
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Drug Targeting and Drug Delivery Systems, West China School of Pharmacy, Sichuan University, No. 17, Block 3, Southern Renmin Road, Chengdu 610041, China.
authors.forename: Shaobo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ruan
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Smart Drug Delivery (Fudan University), Ministry of Education, Fudan University, 826 Zhangheng Road, Shanghai 201203, China.
authors.forename: Shun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Drug Targeting and Drug Delivery Systems, West China School of Pharmacy, Sichuan University, No. 17, Block 3, Southern Renmin Road, Chengdu 610041, China.
authors.forename: Qin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Smart Drug Delivery (Fudan University), Ministry of Education, Fudan University, 826 Zhangheng Road, Shanghai 201203, China.
authors.forename: Xinguo
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Smart Drug Delivery (Fudan University), Ministry of Education, Fudan University, 826 Zhangheng Road, Shanghai 201203, China. Electronic address: jhzhu@shmu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jianhua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Drug Targeting and Drug Delivery Systems, West China School of Pharmacy, Sichuan University, No. 17, Block 3, Southern Renmin Road, Chengdu 610041, China. Electronic address: gaohuile@scu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Huile
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gao
mesh_terms: D002244:Carbon / Q000737:chemistry*; D002460:Cell Line; D006801:Humans; D049449:Luminescence; D054118:Nanospheres
chemical_list: D002244:Carbon
keywords: Carbon nanospheres; Cell uptake mechanism; Safety; Tissue distribution