Journal of Drug Delivery Science and Technology | 2019
Fluorescent carbon dots as carriers for intracellular doxorubicin delivery and track
Abstract
Abstract This paper reported a simple pH-responsive fluorescent therapeutic drug delivery system of doxorubicin (DOX)-loaded carbon dots (CDs) for intracellular drug delivery and track in human gastric cancer cells. Drug loading efficiency of this system was 75.3\u202fwt%. The drug release process of this system followed the first-degree drug delivery model, which was ideal for intravenous injection therapy of cancer. The carboxyl-rich CDs had almost no toxicity to human gastric cancer (MGC-803) and human gastric epithelial (GES-1) cells with the survival rates of over 90%. The CDs-DOX system had about a 2-fold inhibitory effect on MGC-803\u202fcells growth compared to GES-1\u202fcells according to the MTT assay. The cell imaging results showed that the CDs-DOX system could be internalized into the cells efficiently. The intracellular uptake and drug delivery efficiency of this system in GES-1\u202fcells was about 30% of that in the MGC-803\u202fcells. The fluorescent CDs enabled the optical labeling and tracking of the drug delivery process at least 48\u202fh. Because of its specific drug delivery and fluorescence tracking properties, the multifunctional CDs-DOX system possesses potential applications in bioimaging, biolabeling and cancer therapy.