Construction and application of targeted drug delivery system based on hyaluronic acid and heparin functionalised carbon dots.

Thrombosis is a main complication of cancer. It can increase the mortality of cancer patients. Therefore, the anticoagulant heparin (Hep) as an adjuvant therapy was introduced to the drug delivery system based on doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX)-carbon dots (CDs)-Hyaluronic acid (HA), which obviously enhanced the blood compatibility of the system. Drug release process of the CDs-HA-Hep/DOX system was dual-responsive by HA and pH value. Results of in vitro MTT and scratch tests demonstrated that the drug delivery system could targetedly inhibit growth and migration of cancerous cells. In addition, the system allows visual tracking of the drug based on fluorescence of CDs.