Rapid lighting up Golgi apparatus with orange-red emissive and polarity-sensitive carbon quantum dots

As an indispensable organelle in most eukaryotic cells, the Golgi apparatus is involved in many important physiological processes, and monitoring the morphology and structure of the Golgi apparatus is essential. However, the development of fluorescent probes targeting the Golgi apparatus is still at an early stage, and their design and synthesis face major challenges. Herein, carbon quantum dots (CQDs) emitted orange-red light were synthesized by a one-step solvent-thermal method using neutral red (NR) with large sp 2 -conjugated structure as carbon source and cysteine (Cys) with heteroatoms N and S as dopant and targeting source of the Golgi apparatus. CQDs are characterized by excitation dependence, polarity sensitivity, satisfactory fluorescence and chirality stability. CQDs with low toxicity and good biocompatibility can quickly localize and image the Golgi apparatus. Meanwhile, CQDs can penetrate biological tissues for in vivo imaging. This study provides a new material for targeting imaging of the Golgi apparatus to monitor disease progression, drug delivery, and treatment of Golgi apparatus-related diseases.