title: Folic acid functionalized ZnO quantum dots for targeted cancer cell imaging.
abstract: Aqueous stable luminescent ZnO quantum dots (QDs) were successfully synthesized with primary amine groups on the surface, which were designed to conjugate with folic acid (FA) to produce the final ZnO-FA QDs. Such ZnO-FA QDs were able to target some specific cancer cells with overexpressed FA receptors on the membranes and thus differentiate the MCF-7 cancer cells from the normal 293T cells. The nanoparticle uptaking experiments by different cells were carried out in parallel and tracked by confocal laser microscopy dynamically. The results confirmed the specificity of our ZnO-FA QDs towards the FA-receptor overexpressed cancer cells, which had potential for diagnosing cancers in vitro.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Ying-Ying
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: Huan-Ming
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Xiong
mesh_terms: D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D005492:Folic Acid / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology; D057809:HEK293 Cells; D006801:Humans; D008163:Luminescent Measurements / Q000295:instrumentation; D061986:MCF-7 Cells; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal / Q000295:instrumentation*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D045663:Quantum Dots / Q000737:chemistry*; D015034:Zinc Oxide / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D005492:Folic Acid; D015034:Zinc Oxide