Carbon dots based on endogenous nutrients with visible and NIR fluorescence to penetrate blood-brain barrier

Compared with visible fluorescence carbon dots (CDs), the multi-emission (visible and near infrared) fluorescence CDs based platform (V-N Platform) with blood-brain barrier penetration, real-time brain imaging and drug loading capacities, is of great significance. Herein, a novel type of multi-emission fluorescence CDs (GT) was created to penetrate BBB for brain imaging and local drug delivery, which was synthesized by hydrothermal method, using endogenous l-tryptophan and d-glucose. The capability for in vitro imaging was verified through the experiments on cell imaging. Moreover, the ability of in vivo imaging, especially for brain imaging, was confirmed by experiments in mice and zebrafish. In addition, the in vitro and in vivo experiments preliminarily confirmed its potential to act as a drug delivery platform. This V-N Platform (GT) will be expected to have a significant impact on the researches for CDs and the theranostics of brain diseases.