Advances in the field of simultaneous diagnosis and treatment of cancer have introduced “nanotheranostic” systems that enable targeted co-delivery of imaging probes and therapeutic compounds. In this study, a simply designed fluorescent construction has been developed as a novel antimiR-21 nanocarrier for targeted imaging of SKOV3 cells. Fluorescent green carbon dots (CD) were synthesized from grapefruit extract through hydrothermal reaction. Folic acid-chitosan (FA-CS) conjugate was prepared according to the covalent chemistry for simultaneous loading of CD and antimiR-21 sequence in order to design FA-CS(CD/antimiR-21) nanoparticles. The FA-CS(CD/antimiR-21) nanoparticles showed uniform size distribution of 104.9 ± 30.68 nm. Nanoparticles with negligible toxicity and good serum stability transferred antimiR-21 sequence to cancer cells with 80–90% entrapment efficiency. In vitro cellular imaging and distribution studies were investigated by fluorescence microscopy that revealed higher cellular uptake of FA-CS(CD/antimiR-21) hybrid nanogel by SKOV3 ovarian cancer cells, which highly express folate receptors compared to fibroblast folate negative (FR⁻) (NIH3T3) cell lines. Ultimately, this investigation demonstrates that CD-loaded FA-CS nanogels provide a unique construction for cancer-specific fluorescent imaging capable of loading therapeutic agents.

癌症同时诊断和治疗领域的进步已经引入了“纳米治疗”系统，该系统能够靶向共同递送成像探针和治疗化合物。在这项研究中，已经开发出一种设计简单的荧光结构，作为一种新型的antimiR-21纳米载体，可用于SKOV3细胞的靶向成像。通过水热反应从葡萄柚提取物中合成了荧光绿色碳点（CD）。根据共价化学制备叶酸-壳聚糖（FA-CS）缀合物，以同时加载CD和antimiR-21序列，以设计FA-CS（CD / antimiR-21）纳米粒子。FA-CS（CD / antimiR-21）纳米粒子显示出104.9±30.68 nm的均匀尺寸分布。体外细胞成像和分布研究通过荧光显微镜研究了揭示FA-CS的更高的细胞摄取（CD /抗miR-21）通过SKOV3卵巢癌细胞相比，成纤维细胞叶酸负其高度表达叶酸受体的混合纳米凝胶（FR ^- ）（NIH3T3）细胞系。最终，这项研究表明，装载CD的FA-CS纳米凝胶为能够装载治疗剂的癌症特异性荧光成像提供了独特的结构。