PUBLICATION
Crossing the blood-brain-barrier with transferrin conjugated carbon dots: A zebrafish model study
- Authors
- Li, S., Peng, Z., Dallman, J., Baker, J., Othman, A.M., Blackwelder, P.L., Leblanc, R.M.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-160519-17
- Date
- 2016
- Source
- Colloids and surfaces. B, Biointerfaces 145: 251-256 (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Dallman, Julia
- Keywords
- Blood-brain-barrier, Carbon dots, Central nervous system, Transferrin
- MeSH Terms
-
- Animals
- Blood-Brain Barrier/metabolism*
- Carbon/chemistry*
- Light
- Microscopy, Confocal
- Models, Animal
- Transferrin/metabolism*
- Zebrafish/metabolism*
- PubMed
- 27187189 Full text @ Colloids Surf. B Biointerfaces
Citation
Li, S., Peng, Z., Dallman, J., Baker, J., Othman, A.M., Blackwelder, P.L., Leblanc, R.M. (2016) Crossing the blood-brain-barrier with transferrin conjugated carbon dots: A zebrafish model study. Colloids and surfaces. B, Biointerfaces. 145:251-256.
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.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping