Synthesis of terbium nanoparticles-graphene quantum dots-nanosilicate functionalized with folate molecules and its use for imaging of cancer cells

Abstract

Cancer is actually the non-stop division of some body cells, which ultimately poses serious challenges to patients' lives. In the meantime, what is important is the early diagnosis of the disease and the monitoring of the patient's condition during the treatment. The use of cell imaging methods based on molecular knowledge of cancer can work in this direction. Also, the use of nanotechnology improves the quality and efficiency of cell imaging many times. In this study, we studied the synthesis of terbium nanoparticles-graphene quantum dots-nanosilicate functionalized with folate molecules and its use for imaging of cancer cells. Materials and methods: In this study, first terbium nanoparticles-graphene quantum dots were functionalized by hydrothermal center method and then synthesized nanoparticles were functionalized with folate molecules. And the physical and chemical properties of Tb-GQDs-SiO2-FA nanoparticles were evaluated by different methods. The size and surface charge of the synthesized nanoparticles were determined by DLS, and the surface morphology was determined by FE-SEM and AFM, and the functional groups of the nanoparticles were determined by FTIR technique. EDX technique was also used to check and confirm the presence of key elements of synthetic nanoparticles. The stability of synthetic nanoparticles was evaluated under ionic conditions, temperature, incubation time and storage time. Next, the toxicity of Tb-GQDs-SiO22-FA nanoparticles on breast cancer cells was investigated. Results: The dimensions of the quantum nanoparticles synthesized in our study were about 280 nm, and according to the results of DLS and SEM analysis, the synthesized graphene-quantum dot nanoparticles were spherical and had a uniform distribution. Also, the continuation of characterization tests of synthesized Tb-GQDs-SiO22-FA nanoparticles with EDX confirmed the presence of important elements of quantum nanoparticles functionalized with FA. The surface charge of synthesized Tb-GQDs-SiO2-FA nanoparticles was measured around -14.4. On the other hand, the absorption spectra of the synthesized Tb-GQDs-SiO22-FA nanoparticles were investigated by spectrophotometry and the absorption peaks of Tb-GQDs at 220 and 337 nm confirmed the n-π* and π-π* transitions related to C=O. And the absorption peaks at 291 and 360 nm were related to FA binding to nanoparticles. Also, investigations were carried out on determining the optimal excitation radiation wavelength of Tb-GQDs-SiO22-FA and ....360 nm was determined as the optimal radiation wavelength where the intensity of fluorescence emission from nanoparticles is maximum. Also, the investigation related to the determination of the quantum yield of the synthesized Tb-GQDs-SiO22-FA nanoparticle confirmed that its value (36.9%) is very close to the value of RhB, which is due to not being affected by the RhB attached to the nanoparticle.