The carbon-based nanostructures have led to the development of theranostic nanoplatforms for simultaneous diagnosis and therapy due to their effective cell membrane-penetration ability, low degree of cytotoxicity, excellent pore volume, substantial chemical stability, and reactive surface. In the last few years, extensive efforts were made to design multifunctional nanoplatform strategies based on carbon nanostructures, involving multimodal imaging, controlled drug release capabilities, sensing in vitro, efficient drug loading capacity, and therapy. Carbon and graphene quantum dots (CQDs and GQDs) were the recent entrants, contingently being assessed for drug delivery and bioimaging. With the advancements, these quantum dots have ignited remarkable research interest and are now widely evaluated for diagnosis, bioimaging, sensing, and drug delivery applications. The last decade has witnessed their remarkable electrical, optical, and biocompatible properties since their inception. It is presumed that both of them have high potential as drug carriers and would serve as the next generation of approaches to address numerous unresolved therapeutic challenges. This review examined the recent advances of CQD and GQD based drug delivery applications, challenges, and future perspectives to pave the way for further studies in the future.

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碳和石墨烯量子点生物医学应用的最新进展：综述

碳基纳米结构由于其有效的细胞膜穿透能力、低程度的细胞毒性、优异的孔体积、良好的化学稳定性和反应性表面，导致了用于同时诊断和治疗的治疗诊断纳米平台的发展。在过去的几年中，人们在设计基于碳纳米结构的多功能纳米平台策略方面做出了广泛的努力，包括多模态成像、受控药物释放能力、体外传感、高效载药能力和治疗。碳和石墨烯量子点（CQD 和 GQD）是最近的进入者，正在接受药物输送和生物成像方面的评估。随着这些进步，这些量子点引起了人们极大的研究兴趣，现在被广泛评估用于诊断、生物成像、传感和药物输送应用。自诞生以来，过去十年见证了它们卓越的电学、光学和生物相容性特性。据推测，它们都具有作为药物载体的巨大潜力，并将作为下一代方法来解决许多未解决的治疗挑战。本综述探讨了基于 CQD 和 GQD 的药物递送应用的最新进展、挑战和未来前景，为未来的进一步研究铺平道路。