Novel in situ biosynthesized fluorescent zinc nanoclusters for specific cellular bio-imaging

It is well known that zinc ions play an indispensable role in the structure and function of a large number of biological process and relevant bio-macromolecules. When some cancers occurred, the relevant concentration of zinc ions considerably decreased. Since cancer cells have a completely different redox homeostasis from normal cells, in this contribution, we have explored the possibility of bio-imaging or labeling of cancer cells through the in situ biosynthesized zinc nanoclusters by cancerous cells. The results demonstrate that we can readily realize the in vivo fluorescent bio-imaging of cancer cells through the in situ biosynthesis of the biocompatible zinc nanoclusters from cancerous cells (i.e., Hela cervical carcinoma cell line and others) when target cells cultured with micromolar zinc gluconate solutions.