A viscosity-dependent carbon dots with anti-VEGF properties for monitoring and promoting apoptosis in cancerous cell

Abstract Carbon dots (CDs) as a fluorescent nanomaterial plays an important role in bioimaging and light-emitting devices, and its multifunctionalization will be a promising evolution. Here, by a freely rotatable single bond to connect materials with complementary functions together, a dual-function aggregation-induced emission (AIE) CDs (V-CDs) is obtained to visually monitor the dead of cancerous cells and inhibit the production of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). The fluorescence of V-CDs will change between blue and green as the changes of environment viscosity based on the restriction of intramolecular rotation (RIR) effect. For another, the VEGF content decreased by about 3 times compared with the blank group after V-CDs was introduced. The co-administration group shows the best anti-cancer effect among the rest of control groups after Taxol was involved, and the same result are achieved in vitro and vivo. The performances of V-CDs make it possible to realize the potential of visualizing anti-cancer process.