Development of biocompatible fluorescent gelatin nanoparticles for cell imaging applications

In recent years, fluorescent carbon dots (CDs) have attracted a great deal of attention in imaging and related biomedical applications due to their excellent photoluminescence properties, low cost, high quantum yield and low cytotoxicity in comparison with semiconduc tor quantum dots based on metallic elements. In this paper, a new design for development of CDs/gelatin nanoparticles (CDs/GNPs) is described. The obtained fluorescent nanocarriers were characterized using FT-IR, SEM, XRD, DLS, PL analysis. Afterwards, the performance of developed NPs was investigated through different in -vitro tests such as MTT assay, fluorescence microscopy analyses. Methotrexate (MTX) was successfully loaded into the fluorescent NPs at physiological pH (7.4) by ionic interactions between anionic carboxylate groups of MTX and cationic amino groups on the surface of NPs. The MTT assay revealed that the MTX -loaded nanocarriers have higher cytotoxicity in MCF-7 breast cancer cells than nanocarriers without MTX. Upon the obtained results, our fluorescent nanocarriers hold great potential as drug carriers for the targeted MTX delivery to the cancer cells and biological fluorescent labelling.

Keywords:

Carbon Dots , Gelatin Nanoparticles , Cell imaging , Methotrexate