CdTe Quantum Dots and Their Bioconjugate with Human Serum Albumin for Fluorescence Imaging

I D Stolyarchuk,E Sheregii,R Wojnarowska - Nowak,M Romerowicz - Misielak,S Nowak,J Polit

doi:10.15330/pcss.18.2.166-172

Abstract

The interaction between CdTe quantum dots (QDs) with human serum albumin (HSA) and human cell culture was studied by optical spectroscopy technique. Performed research explored the interaction between the CdTe QDs and HSA, and fluorescence imaging efficiency of the QD-HSA bioconjugates in comparison with colloidal QDs. The secondary structure of the HSA is similar to the native form, which suggests a biocompatibility of prepared bionanocomplex. The CdTe QD-HSA bionanoconjugate shows chemical stability in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) under ambient conditions, furthermore, it is stable in the cytoplasm and suitable for cell labeling, tracking, and other bioimaging applications. The CdTe QDs located in an osteosarcoma cancer cells show a high luminescence intensity. The light emission of the CdTe QDs connected with albumin is less than the pure QDs, but it is still satisfactory, and additionally it is stable and has long photoluminescence lifetime. It suggests, that the CdTe NC-HSA bionanocomplex can be used as a fluorescent probe for cell labeling, tracking, and other bioimaging applications.

Highlights

Nanotechnology plays a central role in the recent technological advances in the areas of disease diagnosis, drug design and drug delivery
Semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) are becoming valuable analytical tools for nanomedicine as they offer the opportunity to design luminescent probes for labeling, imaging, and sensing with unprecedented performance [4].From a point of view of biomedical applications the II-VI based QDs have particular interest due to broad absorption spectra, narrow photoluminescence spectra, size-tunable spectra and high sensitivity. These nanoparticles are brightly fluorescent, enabling their use as imaging probes both in vitro and in vivostudy [5].a semiconductor QDs are able to fluorescence resonance energy transfer process (FRET) and by this effect can be commonly used as a biological molecular probes [3]
Prepared constructs of different concentrations of CdTe QDs under interaction with human serum albumin (HSA) protein as well as pure CdTe QDs are investigated to found an optimal product for human cancer cells bio-imaging

Summary

Introduction

Nanotechnology plays a central role in the recent technological advances in the areas of disease diagnosis, drug design and drug delivery. Semiconductor QDs are becoming valuable analytical tools for nanomedicine as they offer the opportunity to design luminescent probes for labeling, imaging, and sensing with unprecedented performance [4].From a point of view of biomedical applications the II-VI based QDs have particular interest due to broad absorption spectra, narrow photoluminescence spectra, size-tunable spectra and high sensitivity. These nanoparticles are brightly fluorescent, enabling their use as imaging probes both in vitro and in vivostudy [5].a semiconductor QDs are able to fluorescence resonance energy transfer process (FRET) and by this effect can be commonly used as a biological molecular probes [3]. Prepared constructs of different concentrations of CdTe QDs under interaction with HSA protein as well as pure CdTe QDs are investigated to found an optimal product for human cancer cells bio-imaging

Experimental

Results and Discussion

Conclusions