Sterically chained amino acid-rich water-soluble carbon quantum dots as a robust tumor-targeted drug delivery platform.

ABSTRACT: Effective antitumor nanomedicines maximize therapeutic efficacy by prolonging drug circulation time and transporting drugs to target sites. Although numerous nanocarriers have been developed for accurate tumor targeting, their limited water solubility makes their stable storage challenging, and poses biosafety risks in clinical translation. Herein, we choose reduced glutathione (GSH) to quick synthesize gram-scale water-soluble large amino acids mimicking carbon quantum dots (LAAM GSH-CQDs) enriched in steric chain amino acid groups with solubility of up to 2.0 g mL^-1. The water-solubility arises from a hexagonal arrangement formed between amino acid groups and water molecules through hydrogen bonding, producing chair-form hexamer hydration layers covering LAAM GSH-CQDs. This en

SUBMITTER: Xie W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11923112 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature