Abstract
This review introduces quantum dots (QDs) and explores their properties, synthesis, applications, delivery systems in biology, and their toxicity. QDs are one of the first nanotechnologies to be integrated with the biological sciences and are widely anticipated to eventually find application in a number of commercial consumer and clinical products. They exhibit unique luminescence characteristics and electronic properties such as wide and continuous absorption spectra, narrow emission spectra, and high light stability. The application of QDs, as a new technology for biosystems, has been typically studied on mammalian cells. Due to the small structures of QDs, some physical properties such as optical and electron transport characteristics are quite different from those of the bulk materials.
Highlights
In the past years, a new class of fluorescent particles emerged as a good candidate for single molecule and single particle tracking (SPT) in living cells and organisms, the semiconductor quantum dots [1]
This review introduces Quantum dots (QDs) and explores their properties, synthesis, applications, delivery systems in biology, and their toxicity
Applications In this review, we evaluate few experiments that show the high potential of QDs in biological application, including tracking different macromolecules in the cell, tracking various cells in the tissue, labeling organelles
Summary
A new class of fluorescent particles emerged as a good candidate for single molecule and single particle tracking (SPT) in living cells and organisms, the semiconductor quantum dots [1]. Use in prokaryote bioimaging Sensitive and selective staining of bacterial mutants using QD labels was demonstrated by Smith's group This principle of detection is based on selective targeting affinity of Zn(II)dipicolylamine coordination complex to phospholipids on the bacterial cell surface of specific strain as shown in Figure 3 [49,50]. Howarth et al demonstrated a method to track endogenous cell-surface proteins without cross-linking by purifying monovalent antibody-QD conjugates They approach to make monovalent tight-binding QDs, using mSA, which could be applied to other nanoparticles that show sufficient electrophoretic mobility. Xiao and Barker have investigated coated (CdSe)ZnS QDs as fluorescence labels for FISH of biotinylated DNA to human lymphocyte metaphase chromosomes under conditions that approximate those commonly found in clinical cytogenetics laboratories [67] Delivery system of QD Multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWNT) delivery system Tat peptide-mediated delivery system
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