Nitrogen-doped cyan-emissive carbon quantum dots for fluorescence tetracycline detection and lysosome imaging. Issue 52 (24th November 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zhu, Tongtong; Cao, Lei; Kou, Xinyue; Liu, Yulu; Dong, Wen-Fei; Ge, Mingfeng; Li, Li
• Is Part Of: RSC advances. Volume 12:Issue 52(2022)
• Page Start: 33761
• Page End: 33771
• Publication Date: 2022-11-24
• Subjects: Chemistry -- Periodicals; 540.5
• DOI: 10.1039/d2ra04945g
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2046-2069

Abstract

Abstract : Schematic diagram of the synthesis of C-CQDs and experimental results in vitro and in cell. Abstract : Tetracyclines (TCs) prevent the growth of peptide chains and the synthesis of proteins, and they are widely used to inhibit Gram-positive and -negative bacteria. For the detection of tetracyclines in cell and in vitro, a convenient and simple detection system based on nitrogen-doped cyan carbon quantum dots (C-CQDs) was developed. C-CQDs have excellent excitation-independent properties, the best optimal excitation peak is 360 nm and the best emission peak is 480 nm. Based on the inner filter effect (IFE), the fluorescence intensity of C-CQDs in solution decreases with the increase of tetracyclines. In the range of 0–100 μM, C-CQDs present a good linear relationship with three tetracyclines (CTC, TET, OCT), with R 2 all greater than 0.999. C-CQDs can detect tetracycline in milk samples with recovery in the range of 98.2–103.6%, which demonstrates their potential and broad application in real samples. Furthermore, C-CQDs exhibit excellent lysosomal targeting, as indicated by a Pearson's coefficient of 0.914 and an overlap of 0.985. The internalisation of C-CQDs was mainly affected by lipid raft-mediated endocytosis in endocytic pathway experiments. These experiments indicate that C-CQDs can be effectively used to detect TC content and target lysosomes as an alternative to commercial dyes.