A Triantennary Dendritic Galactoside-Capped Nanohybrid with a ZnS/CdSe Nanoparticle Core as a Hydrophilic, Fluorescent, Multivalent Probe for Metastatic Lung Cancer Cells

Abstract

A new tri-antennary, galactoside-capped gallamide dendritic anchor with thiolate focal group is synthesized via click chemistry. The highly hydrophilic dendron was efficiently anchored onto the surface of CdSe/ZnS core/shell nanoparticles in a covalent fashion, as evidenced by 1H NMR spectrum of the resultant nanohybrid with intact core fluorescent property. The water-soluble nano-hybrid was found smoothly and selectively uptaken by lung cancer cells enriched with membrane-bound asialoprotein receptors in 2–3 h, as evidenced by confocal microscopic analysis. Furthermore, cancer cells that are undergoing active mitosis also tend to uptake the nanohybrids efficiently and remain sustainable in serum-containing medium for several days, which shed light on its application as a photodynamic drug carrier for apoptosis study.