Despite their immense potentia
l in biomedicine, carbon nanomateria
ls suffer from inefficient dispersion and bio
logica
l activity in vivo. Here we uti
lize a sing
le, yet mu
ltifunctiona
l, hya
luronic acid-based biosurfactant to simu
ltaneous
ly disperse nanocarbons and target sing
le-wa
lled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) to CD44 receptor positive tumor ce
lls with prompt uptake. Ce
llu
lar uptake was monitored by intrace
llu
lar enzyme-activated f
luorescence, and
loca
lization of SWCNTs within ce
lls was further confirmed by Raman mapping. In vivo photoacoustic, f
luorescence, and positron emission tomography imaging of coated SWCNTs disp
lay high tumor targeting capabi
lity whi
le providing
long-term, f
luorescence mo
lecu
lar imaging of targeted enzyme events. By uti
lizing a sing
le biomateria
l surfactant for SWCNT dispersion without additiona
l bioconjugation, we designed a faci
le technique that brings nanocarbons c
loser to their biomedica
l potentia
l.
Keywords:
ls&qsSearchArea=searchText">Carbon nanomaterials;
lization&qsSearchArea=searchText">one-step functionalization;
luronic+acid&qsSearchArea=searchText">hyaluronic acid;
nanotubes;
lecular+imaging&qsSearchArea=searchText">molecular imaging