Protein-Carbon Dot Nanohybrid-Based Early Blood-Brain Barrier Damage Theranostics.

For effective treatment of ischemic cerebral thrombosis, it is of great significance to find a facile way in assessing the early damage of blood-brain barrier (BBB) after ischemic stroke during thrombolysis by integrating thrombolytic agents with fluorescent materials. Herein, a novel type of protein-carbon dot  nanohybrids is reported by the incorporation of carbon dots on thrombolytic agents through covalent linkage. Both in vitro and ex vivo fluorescence imaging measurements have demonstrated remarkable imaging effects in the brain of transient middle cerebral artery occlusion mice. Besides, the outstanding thrombolytic capacity of the nanohybrids was determined by in vitro thrombolysis tests. As one of the few reports of the construction of thrombolytic agents and fluorescent nanomaterials, the nanohybrids retain thrombolysis ability and fluorescent traceability simultaneously. It may provide a promising indicator for early BBB damage and thrombolytic agent distribution to estimate the possibility of symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage after thrombolysis and supply tissue window evidence for clinical thrombolytic agent application.

Gold Rod-Polyethylene Glycol-Carbon Dot Nanohybrids as Phototheranostic Probes.

Emphasis using phototheranostics has been placed on the construction of multifunctional nanoplatforms for simultaneous tumor diagnosis and therapy. Herein, we put forth a novel nanosized luminescent material using the incorporation of red emissive carbon dots on gold nanorods through polyethylene glycol as a covalent linkage for dual-modal imaging and photothermal therapy. The novel nanohybrids, not only retain the optical properties of the gold nanorod and carbon dots, but also possess superior imaging performance in both confocal laser scanning microscopy and fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy. The nanohybrids also exhibit excellent photothermal performance as phototheranostic nanohybrid probes for in vitro assays. This study promises a new multifunctional nanoplatform for cancer diagnostics and therapeutics.

Construction of a hypoxia responsive upconversion nanosensor for tumor imaging by fluorescence resonance energy transfer from carbon dots to ruthenium complex.

In this work, we synthesized a hypoxia responsive upconversion nanosensor by the conjugation of oxygen insensitive upconversion carbon dots (CDs) with an oxygen sensitive ruthenium(ii) complex (Rud2b). The CD-Rud2b conjugate was then PEGylated to mediate the formation of nano-sized assemblies of the resultant polymer probe (CD-Ru-mPEG) in aqueous solution. The strategy allows the oxygen sensitive probe (Rud2b) to be excited by NIR irradiation and achieve upconverted emission through the Förster resonance energy transfer process from the CDs. The oxygen sensitivity of the ruthenium moiety was well-preserved in the polymeric aggregates because the PEG chains could prohibit the occurrence of self-quenching that may occur due to the close packing of the probes. Such an upconversion photoluminescence property makes the CD-Ru-mPEG nanosensor work as a biocompatible imaging system to monitor the oxygen level in cells and the hypoxic condition in vivo.

A mesoporous "shell-in-shell" structured nanocatalyst with large surface area, enhanced synergy, and improved catalytic performance for Suzuki-Miyaura coupling reaction.

A novel mesoporous "shell-in-shell" structured nanocatalyst (@Pd/meso-TiO2/Pd@meso-SiO2) with large surface area, enhanced synergy, and improved catalytic performance is created for catalyzing Suzuki-Miyaura coupling and 4-nitrophenol reduction reactions.