Despite significant advances of nanomedicine, the issues of biocompatibility, accumulation-derived toxicity, and the lack of sensing and in vivo imaging capabilities hamper the translation of most nanocarriers into clinic. To address this, we utilize nitrogen, boron/nitrogen, and sulfur-doped graphene quantum dots (GQDs) as fully biocompatible multifunctional platforms allowing for multicolor visible/near-IR imaging and cancer-sensing. These GQDs are scalably produced in one-step synthesis from a single biocompatible glucosamine precursor, are water-soluble, show no cytotoxicity at high concentrations of 1 mg/mL, and demonstrate substantial degradation at 36 h in biological environments as verified by TEM imaging. Because of their small sizes, GQDs exhibit efficient internalization maximized at 12 h followed by further degradation/excretion. Their high-yield intrinsic fluorescence in blue/green and near-infrared allows for multicolor in vitro imaging on its own or in combination with other fluorophores, and offers the capabilities for in vivo near-IR fluorescence tracking. Additionally, nitrogen- and sulfur-doped GQDs exhibit pH-dependent fluorescence response that is successfully utilized as a sensing mechanism for acidic extracellular environments of cancer cells. It allows for the deterministic, ratiometric spectral discrimination between cancerous (HeLa and MCF-7 cell) versus healthy (HEK-293 cell) environments with substantial intensity ratios of 1.6 to 8. These results suggest fully biocompatible GQDs developed in this work as multifunctional candidates for in vitro delivery of active agents, multicolor visible/near-IR fluorescence imaging, and pH-sensing of cancerous environments.
Keywords: biocompatible; biodegradable; fluorescence; graphene quantum dots; near-infrared; pH-sensing.