Jurkat T Cell Detectability and Toxicity Evaluation of Low-Temperature Synthesized Cadmium Quantum Dots

Abstract

Early and highly accurate detection of diverse diseases is in urgent demand than ever, especially for cancers and infectious ones. Among possibilities, biosensing by utilizing conjugated nanoparticles is still a method of choice. However, the toxicity of quantum dots remains a big matter of concern in those biooriented applications. In this study, mercaptosuccinic acid-coated cadmium selenide quantum dots of approximately 2.3 nm were synthesized with a simple green method at low temperature and cost-saving chemicals. The influence of synthesis factors was investigated with different spectroscopic methods. The toxicity issue was evaluated on the NIH-3T3 cell line (ATCC® CRL-1658™) and an MTT assay, revealing a secure threshold of 20 μg/ml. Consequently, successful conjugation to the CD3 antibody including an A/G protein bridge was implemented and verified with fluorescent methods. Finally, Jurkat T cell detectability of conjugated CdSe was successfully validated with fluorescent microscopy. The CdSe-based products are accessible for future biosensing applications.