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Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles
Crossing the Blood–Brain–Barrier with Transferrin Conjugated Carbon Dots: A Zebrafish Model Study
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces
ISSN
0927-7765
Publication Date
9-1-2016
Keywords
Blood-brain-barrier, Carbon dots, Central nervous system, Transferrin
Abstract
Drug delivery to the central nervous system (CNS) in biological systems remains a major medical challenge due to the tight junctions between endothelial cells known as the blood–brain–barrier (BBB). Here we use a zebrafish model to explore the possibility of using transferrin-conjugated carbon dots (C-Dots) to ferry compounds across the BBB. C-Dots have previously been reported to inhibit protein fibrillation, and they are also used to deliver drugs for disease treatment. In terms of the potential medical application of C-Dots for the treatment of CNS diseases, one of the most formidable challenges is how to deliver them inside the CNS. To achieve this in this study, human transferrin was covalently conjugated to C-Dots. The conjugates were then injected into the vasculature of zebrafish to examine the possibility of crossing the BBB in vivo via transferrin receptor-mediated endocytosis. The experimental observations suggest that the transferrin-C-Dots can enter the CNS while C-Dots alone cannot.
DOI
10.1016/j.colsurfb.2016.05.007
Volume
145
First Page
251
Last Page
256
Additional Comments
NSF grant #: 1355317
NSUWorks Citation
Shanghao Li, Zhili Peng, Julia Dallman, James Baker, Abdelhameed M. Othman, Patricia Blackwelder, and Roger M. Leblanc. 2016. Crossing the Blood–Brain–Barrier with Transferrin Conjugated Carbon Dots: A Zebrafish Model Study .Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces : 251 -256. https://nsuworks.nova.edu/occ_facarticles/973.
Comments
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