In recent years, the application of
mRNA vaccine-based
tumor immunotherapy invigorated anti-
tumor therapy. However, the low efficiency of
mRNA delivery and the lack of targeting ability in vivo are the major obstacles to achieving highly efficient
immunotherapy. In this work, we report a chemical library of amphiphilic
carbon dots (ACDs) and the synthesized ACDs were applied to
mRNA delivery, bio-imaging, and
tumor immunotherapy. The ACDs can smoothly bind with
mRNA to form ACDs@
mRNA nanocomplexes, and the fluorescent properties of the ACDs afforded the nanoparticles with bio-imaging ability. By screening of the ACDs, O12-Tta-CDs were found to have optimal
mRNA transfection efficiency and the ability of spleen-targeted delivery. In addition, O12-Tta-CDs can well transfect the immune cells and promote the maturation and antigen presentation of bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (BMDCs). Furthermore, O12-Tta-CDs@OVA-
mRNA was successfully applied to inhibit
tumor growth, and more specific T-cell infiltration was observed in spleen and
tumors of mice
after treatment in the E.G7-OVA
tumor model. Besides, O12-Tta-CDs@OVA-
mRNA also achieved a good
therapeutic effect in
tumor recurrence inhibition and
tumor prophylactic experiments. This study provided a new direction for the design of
mRNA vectors, which is promising in
tumor immunotherapy.