A target-response ratiometric or turn-off fluorescent dual-mode platform for simultaneous detection of multiple anticancer drugs

Abstract

The anthracycline including doxorubicin (DOX), daunorubicin (DAU) and mitoxantrone (MTX) plays crucial roles in human health due to their notably clinical efficacy in various malignant tumors. There is few molecular probe and abiotic sensor that can simultaneously discriminate among anthracycline drugs. Herein, a target-response ratiometric and turn-off fluorescent dual-mode platform was designed for simultaneous detection of multiple anticancer drugs based on blue-emitting carbon dots (BCDs). In the presence of anthracycline, specific absorption and formation of the BCDs-anthracycline conjugate was achieved via electrostatic interaction and hydrophobic force, leading to ratiometric signal or quenched fluorescent response, thereby achieving ratiometric or turn-off dual-mode detection. Specifically, the introduction of both DOX and DAU produce ratiometric response of BCDs due to fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) and dynamic quenching while MTX only induce reduced fluorescent response attribute to photoinduced electron transfer (PET) and dynamic quenching. The linear range calculated is 1–98, 1–91 and 1–77 μM for DOX, DAU and MTX, respectively, with a limit of detection of 0.02, 0.05 and 0.06 μM. Taking advantage of target-response self-verification ratiometric and sensitive fluorescent detection, the dual-mode platform was proposed and applied for successful discrimination of anthracycline drugs. This study opens a new path for multiplex drugs analysis in a facile and rapid way.