Abstract
Carbon based polymer dots have piqued attention of researchers because of excellent biocompatibility, and good solubility. Most of the p-dots are able to generate ROS which is effective for photodynamic therapy for the treatment of cancer while some photosensitizers such as porphyrins possess some drawbacks such as hydrophobicity, and dark toxicity. Therefore in this study we conjugated red emission carbon based polymer with pyropheophorbide-α through amide condensation and π–π stacking. One pot synthesis of the conjugate was successfully achieved. Their photophysiological properties were studied and structures were characterized by FT-IR, TEM and 1HNMR. pH- sensitivity of the conjugates was confirmed using fluorescence and UV–vis spectroscopy. Photo toxicity and dark toxicity of the prepared conjugates were evaluated in human esophageal cancer cell line (Eca-109). Hemocompatibility of the synthesized conjugates was evaluated and proved that the conjugates are safe to use for the treatment of tumor. Our results showed the PS doped p-dots had less dark toxicity and increased light toxicity as well as ROS generation was high as compared to precursor drug. Therefore, incorporation of p-dots to porphyrin improved biocompatibility and enhanced the photodynamic effect.
Highlights
Carbon-based fluorescence nanomaterials, such as carbon dots (CDs) and polymer dots (PDs), have stirred much attention, because of their enticing properties, e.g., high fluorescence[1,2,3,4], excellent s tability[5,6] and good biocompatibility[7,8,9,10]
The synthesized hybrids were characterized by TEM, FT-IR, 1HNMR, UV–Vis and, fluorescence spectrophotometry
Facile one pot synthesis of the nanohybrids was achived at low temperature
Summary
Carbon-based fluorescence nanomaterials, such as carbon dots (CDs) and polymer dots (PDs), have stirred much attention, because of their enticing properties, e.g., high fluorescence[1,2,3,4], excellent s tability[5,6] and good biocompatibility[7,8,9,10]. These problems limit the synthesis of CDs on a large scale Their short-wavelength emission (400–550 nm) and poor water solubility further limit the use of semiconductor quantum dots and organic dyes in the fields of bioimaging and nanomedicine[31,32,33]. Though porphyrin-based molecules are the most commonly used PSs for PDT, many of them possess some drawbacks such as prolonged photosensitivity, poor solubility, dark toxicity, effective PDT and inadequate selectivity yield. To overcome these shortcomings, the incorporation of nanomaterials to porphyrins through self-assembly or covalent linkage is one of the effective m ethods[35,36].
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