Chapter 13 Carbon dots in drug delivery

Drug delivery is an important aspect of any successful disease therapy; it ensures that the drugs reach the target site in its intact form and selectively infer its activity with reduced adverse effects on the surrounding tissues. However, selectivity and drug solubility has always been a major limitation for most therapeutic drugs. To overcome these limitations, drug delivery strategies have been devised, which include chemical modification of the drugs or the use of drug delivery systems (DDS). Although DDS are able to increase drug solubility and bioavailability based on their drug target and route of administration, they can be limited by several factors such as bystander toxicity, early drug release and clearance. In recent years, the focus has shifted to nanocarriers due to their unique physicochemical properties. Carbon dots (CDs), in particular, stand out as they are made from carbon sources and are perceived to be biocompatible. Furthermore, their smaller sizes (2-5 nm) afford them a tunable photoluminescence and fluorescent properties that can help monitor CD-drug conjugates in real time.