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Nanomaterials
Special Issues
Quantum Dots for Following Therapeutic Delivery
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Quantum Dots for Following Therapeutic Delivery

A special issue of Nanomaterials (ISSN 2079-4991).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2017) | Viewed by 11021

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Kevin Critchley

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
Interests: nanomaterials; surface chemistry; biomedical nanoparticles; gold nanostructures; quantum dots; nanoparticle–biological interactions
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Quantum dots are powerful tools for investigating biology. Their bright fluorescence, tuneable emission, functionalizable surfaces, and resistance to bleaching make them exceptional fluorophores. Quantum dots were first reported, in 1998, for biological imaging applications by Alivisatos et al. and Nie et al., respectively. Since then, significant progress has been made, such as, advanced surface functional chemistry, the fabrication of near unity photoluminent quantum yields, the synthesis of heavy-metal-free quantum dots, and the commercialisation of quantum dot products. In this Special Issue, we focus on how quantum dots have been used to track the delivery of therapeutics in cells and in vivo. Drugs, and other therapeutics, can be targeted to specific cells, tissues, or both. In addition to passive uptake strategies, several triggered release mechanisms are being explored. Quantum dots have a role to play in tracking drugs, reporting uptake, indicating release events, and monitoring the effects of drugs on cells. This Special Issue is dedicated to the application of quantum dots in monitoring therapeutic delivery and efficacy.

Dr. Kevin Critchley
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Nanomaterials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Quantum dots

  • therapeutics

  • uptake

  • cellular tracking

  • in-vivo imaging

  • in-vitro assay

  • fluorescent reporters

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 15536 KiB  
Article
NIR-Emitting Alloyed CdTeSe QDs and Organic Dye Assemblies: A Nontoxic, Stable, and Efficient FRET System
by Doris E. Ramírez-Herrera, Eustolia Rodríguez-Velázquez, Manuel Alatorre-Meda, Francisco Paraguay-Delgado, Antonio Tirado-Guízar, Pablo Taboada and Georgina Pina-Luis
Nanomaterials 2018, 8(4), 231; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano8040231 - 11 Apr 2018
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 4237
Abstract
In the present work, we synthesize Near Infrared (NIR)-emitting alloyed mercaptopropionic acid (MPA)-capped CdTeSe quantum dots (QDs) in a single-step one-hour process, without the use of an inert atmosphere or any pyrophoric ligands. The quantum dots are water soluble, non-toxic, and highly photostable [...] Read more.
In the present work, we synthesize Near Infrared (NIR)-emitting alloyed mercaptopropionic acid (MPA)-capped CdTeSe quantum dots (QDs) in a single-step one-hour process, without the use of an inert atmosphere or any pyrophoric ligands. The quantum dots are water soluble, non-toxic, and highly photostable and have high quantum yields (QYs) up to 84%. The alloyed MPA-capped CdTeSe QDs exhibit a red-shifted emission, whose color can be tuned between visible and NIR regions (608–750 nm) by controlling the Te:Se molar ratio in the precursor mixtures and/or changing the time reaction. The MPA-capped QDs were characterized by UV-visible absorption spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and zeta potential measurements. Photostability studies were performed by irradiating the QDs with a high-power xenon lamp. The ternary MPA-CdTeSe QDs showed greater photostability than the corresponding binary MPA-CdTe QDs. We report the Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) from the MPA-capped CdTeSe QDs as energy donors and Cyanine5 NHS-ester (Cy5) dye as an energy acceptor with efficiency (E) up to 95%. The distance between the QDs and dye (r), the Förster distance (R0), and the binding constant (K) are reported. Additionally, cytocompatibility and cell internalization experiments conducted on human cancer cells (HeLa) cells revealed that alloyed MPA-capped CdTeSe QDs are more cytocompatible than MPA-capped CdTe QDs and are capable of ordering homogeneously all over the cytoplasm, which allows their use as potential safe, green donors for biological FRET applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Quantum Dots for Following Therapeutic Delivery)
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3342 KiB  
Article
Probing Temperature- and pH-Dependent Binding between Quantum Dots and Bovine Serum Albumin by Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy
by Zonghua Wang, Qiyan Zhao, Menghua Cui, Shichao Pang, Jingfang Wang, Ying Liu and Liming Xie
Nanomaterials 2017, 7(5), 93; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano7050093 - 25 Apr 2017
Cited by 19 | Viewed by 6323
Abstract
Luminescent quantum dots (QDs) with unique optical properties have potential applications in bio-imaging. The interaction between QDs and bio-molecules is important to the biological effect of QDs in vivo. In this paper, we have employed fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) to probe the temperature- [...] Read more.
Luminescent quantum dots (QDs) with unique optical properties have potential applications in bio-imaging. The interaction between QDs and bio-molecules is important to the biological effect of QDs in vivo. In this paper, we have employed fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) to probe the temperature- and pH-dependent interactions between CdSe QDs with carboxyl (QDs-COOH) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) in buffer solutions. The results have shown that microscopic dissociation constant K′D is in the range of (1.5 ± 0.2) × 10−5 to (8.6 ± 0.1) × 10−7 M, the Hill coefficient n is from 0.4 to 2.3, and the protein corona thickness is from 3.0 to 9.4 nm. Variable-temperature measurements have shown both negative values of ∆H and ∆S for BSA adsorption on QDs-COOH, while pH has a profound effect on the adsorption. Additional, FCS measurement QDs-COOH and proteins in whole mice serum and plasma samples has also been conducted. Finally, simulation results have shown four favored QD binding sites in BSA. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Quantum Dots for Following Therapeutic Delivery)
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