☆ 4.5 Review

Research advance on cell imaging and cytotoxicity of different types of quantum Dots

JOURNAL OF APPLIED TOXICOLOGY (2021)

Journal

JOURNAL OF APPLIED TOXICOLOGY

Volume 41, Issue 3, Pages 342-361

Publisher

WILEY

DOI: 10.1002/jat.4083

Keywords

apoptosis; autophagy; cell imaging; cytotoxicity; inflammation; Nanotoxicology; oxidative stress; quantum dots (QDs); ROS

Funding

Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [2242019K40220]
National Natural Science Foundation of China [21876026, 31671034, 81473003]

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Abstract

As one of the emerging nanomaterials, quantum dots have been widely studied by scientists for bioimaging, especially cell imaging. The toxicity of Cd-based QDs has hindered their cell imaging application, leading to the emergence of Cd-free-metal and metal-free QDs as potential substitutes. However, the cytotoxicity of these alternative QDs cannot be ignored, with some reports indicating up-regulation of oxidative stress, inflammation, and apoptosis. This review classifies QDs into three types and discusses their cell imaging application and cytotoxicity, highlighting the potential cytotoxicity of Cd-free QDs.

Quantum dots (QDs), as one of the emerging nanomaterials, have been widely studied by scientists due to their advantages and potential in bioimaging, especially cell imaging. Cadmium (Cd)-based QDs, which have the best photoluminescence property, have received widespread attention. However, due to the obvious toxicity problem of these QDs, their cell imaging application is hindered. Recently, the emergence of Cd-free-metal and metal-free QDs with lower toxicity makes people consider that Cd-based QDs may be substituted by these QDs. However, problems of these QDs in cytotoxicity also cannot be ignored. Some reports claimed that their prepared emerging QDs for cell imaging were low toxicity, but there still exist up-regulation of oxidative stress, inflammation, and apoptosis from other reports. And, up to now, few reports have separately summarized and discussed the issues of cell imaging and cytotoxicity of different types of QDs. Therefore, in this review, we classify QDs as following three types, Cd-based, Cd-free-metal and metal-free QDs, focus on the cell, the essential unit of life, discuss cell imaging application and cytotoxicity of QDs, and finally elucidate main mechanisms of cytotoxicity respectively. This review provides reference for the toxicity evaluation of QDs and highlights the potential cytotoxicity of Cd-free QDs.

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MPA-capped CdTequantum dots induces endoplasmic reticulum stress-mediated autophagy and apoptosis through generation of reactive oxygen species in human liver normal cell and liver tumor cell

Ting Zhang, Jie Lu, Ying Yao, Yanting Pang, Xiaomeng Ding, Meng Tang

Summary: This study aims to explore the importance of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress-induced autophagy in CdTe QDs toxicity, and the different cell outcomes in normal cells and cancer cells. The results showed that CdTe QDs induce ROS generation and prolonged ER stress in normal human liver cells (L02), leading to apoptosis. In contrast, CdTe QDs activate protective cellular autophagy in human liver cancer cells (HepG2 cells), preventing apoptosis.

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