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Conjugates of folic acids with BSA-coated quantum dots for cancer cell targeting and imaging by single-photon and two-photon excitation

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Abstract

Bovine serum albumin (BSA)-coated CdTe/ZnS quantum dots (BSA–QDs) were selected to conjugate with folic acid (FA), forming FA–BSA–QDs. This study aims to develop these small FA–BSA–QDs (less than 10 nm) for the diagnosis of cancers in which the FA receptor (FR) is overexpressed. The enhancement of cellular uptake in FR-positive human nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells (KB cells) for FA–BSA–QDs was found by means of confocal fluorescence microscopy under single-photon and two-photon excitation. The uptake enhancement for FA–BSA–QDs was further evaluated by flow-cytometric analysis in 104 KB cells, and was about 3 times higher than for BSA–QDs on average. The uptake enhancement was suppressed when KB cells had been pretreated with excess FA, reflecting that the enhancement was mediated by the association of FR at cell membranes with FA–BSA–QDs. When human embryonic kidney cells (293T) (FR-negative cells) and KB cells, respectively, were incubated with FA–BSA–QDs (1 μM) for 40 min, the FA–BSA–QD uptake by 293T cells was much weaker than that by KB cells, demonstrating that FA–BSA–QDs could undergo preferential binding on FR-positive cancer cells. These characteristics suggest that FA–BSA–QDs are potential candidates for cancer diagnosis.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission (06ZR14005 and 0752nm016), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (10774027, 11074035 and 61008055), and the Shanghai Educational Development Foundation (2008CG03).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics, Department of Physics, Fudan University, NO 220 Handan Road, Shanghai, 200433, People’s Republic of China

    He Meng & Ji-Yao Chen

  2. Department of Optical Science and Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, People’s Republic of China

    Lan Mi & Pei-Nan Wang

  3. National Laboratory for Infrared Physics, Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics, Chinese Academy Science, Shanghai, 200083, People’s Republic of China

    Mei-Ying Ge, Yang Yue & Ning Dai

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  1. He Meng
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  2. Ji-Yao Chen
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  3. Lan Mi
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  5. Mei-Ying Ge
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  6. Yang Yue
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Correspondence to Ji-Yao Chen.

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Meng, H., Chen, JY., Mi, L. et al. Conjugates of folic acids with BSA-coated quantum dots for cancer cell targeting and imaging by single-photon and two-photon excitation. J Biol Inorg Chem 16, 117–123 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00775-010-0709-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00775-010-0709-z

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