Simple and user-friendly nucleolus imaging with ultra-narrow bandwidth red emission carbon dots

IF 4.1 3区工程技术 Q2 CHEMISTRY, APPLIED

Dyes and Pigments Pub Date : 2025-01-17 DOI:10.1016/j.dyepig.2025.112659

Seyed-Omid Kalji , Majid Sadeghizadeh , Khosro Khajeh

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

The nucleolus has emerged as a promising target for cancer diagnosis and therapy, with its imaging being crucial for both fundamental research and clinical applications. Fluorescence imaging is a powerful tool for this purpose. However, its use is limited by the scarcity of fluorescent agents that specifically target the nucleolus and have excellent biocompatibility. Carbon dots (CDs) are becoming a valuable tool for cellular imaging because of their excellent optical properties and low toxicity. In this work, for the first time, ultra-narrow bandwidth emission CDs were synthesized with nicotinamide (NAM) and o-phenylenediamine (o-PDA) for nucleolus imaging. The reaction was carried out at 180 °C for 8 h in a stainless-steel autoclave, using a facile, low-cost, and one-step solvothermal approach with H₂O/H₂SO₄ as solvent. Prepared CDs emit red emission at 617 nm with an ultra-narrow full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 28.1 nm and quantum yield (QY) of 13 %. Moreover, the cytotoxicity assay demonstrated that CDs exhibited excellent biocompatibility with MCF-7 breast cancer cells, even at concentrations as high as 4.5 mg/mL. Finally, fixed and live cell imaging results indicate that prepared CDs show bright red fluorescence in the nucleoli of MCF-7 cells. Our results demonstrate the efficacy of prepared CDs in nucleolus imaging, offering a convenient and promising fluorescent probe that can be used for fixed and live cell nucleolus imaging.

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来源期刊

Dyes and Pigments 工程技术-材料科学：纺织

CiteScore

8.20

自引率

13.30%

发文量

933

审稿时长

33 days

期刊介绍： Dyes and Pigments covers the scientific and technical aspects of the chemistry and physics of dyes, pigments and their intermediates. Emphasis is placed on the properties of the colouring matters themselves rather than on their applications or the system in which they may be applied. Thus the journal accepts research and review papers on the synthesis of dyes, pigments and intermediates, their physical or chemical properties, e.g. spectroscopic, surface, solution or solid state characteristics, the physical aspects of their preparation, e.g. precipitation, nucleation and growth, crystal formation, liquid crystalline characteristics, their photochemical, ecological or biological properties and the relationship between colour and chemical constitution. However, papers are considered which deal with the more fundamental aspects of colourant application and of the interactions of colourants with substrates or media. The journal will interest a wide variety of workers in a range of disciplines whose work involves dyes, pigments and their intermediates, and provides a platform for investigators with common interests but diverse fields of activity such as cosmetics, reprographics, dye and pigment synthesis, medical research, polymers, etc.