Carbon dots (CDs) have shown great potential in drug delivery and biological imaging applications. In this work, a doxorubicin (DOX) delivery carrier and imaging probe for liver cancer-targeted therapy was designed based on CDs with high fluorescence quantum yield (97%), aiming to enhance the antitumor activity and imaging efficiency. Folic acid (FA), which showed high expression in hepatoma cells, was used as targeting components to modify CDs (FA-CDs), and then FA-CDs-DOX was obtained by loading DOX. Results show that CDs and FA-CDs have good biocompatibility, and the DOX release from FA-CDs-DOX is targeted and selective. Confocal microscope demonstrates that FA-CDs-DOX has excellent ability of fluorescence imaging in liver cancer cells. The imaging in vivo shows the fluorescence intensity of FA-CDs-DOX is strong enough to penetrate tumor tissue and skin, further verifying its enhanced-fluorescent imaging effects. Tumor inhibition in vivo indicates that the targeting ability of FA-CDs-DOX is significantly higher than that of free DOX, showing obvious better therapeutic effect. To sum up, the targeted and fluorescent drug delivery system based on CDs with high fluorescence quantum yield show an excellent imaging in vivo and tumor inhibition effect, which provide a novel strategy for promoting the potential clinical application of CDs in liver cancer treatment.

碳点（CD）在药物递送和生物成像应用中显示出巨大潜力。在这项工作中，基于具有高荧光量子产率（97％）的CD设计了用于肝癌靶向治疗的阿霉素（DOX）递送载体和成像探针，旨在增强抗肿瘤活性和成像效率。在肝癌细胞中高表达的叶酸（FA）被用作靶向成分以修饰CD（FA-CDs），然后通过加载DOX获得FA-CDs-DOX。结果表明，CD和FA-CD具有良好的生物相容性，并且从FA-CD-DOX释放DOX具有针对性和选择性。共聚焦显微镜表明，FA-CDs-DOX在肝癌细胞中具有出色的荧光成像能力。体内成像显示FA-CDs-DOX的荧光强度足以穿透肿瘤组织和皮肤，进一步证实了其增强的荧光成像效果。体内肿瘤抑制表明FA-CDs-DOX的靶向能力明显高于游离DOX，具有明显更好的治疗效果。综上所述，基于具有高荧光量子产率的CD的靶向和荧光药物递送系统显示出优异的体内成像和肿瘤抑制效果，这为促进CD在肝癌治疗中的潜在临床应用提供了新的策略。表现出明显较好的治疗效果。综上所述，基于具有高荧光量子产率的CD的靶向和荧光药物递送系统显示出优异的体内成像和肿瘤抑制效果，这为促进CD在肝癌治疗中的潜在临床应用提供了新的策略。表现出明显较好的治疗效果。综上所述，基于具有高荧光量子产率的CD的靶向和荧光药物递送系统显示出优异的体内成像和肿瘤抑制效果，这为促进CD在肝癌治疗中的潜在临床应用提供了新的策略。