Selective toxicity of hydroxyl-rich carbon nanodots for cancer research
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The toxicity of nanoparticles in a biological system is an integration of effects arising from surface functionality, particle size, ionic dissolution, etc. This complexity suggests that generalization of a material's toxicity may be inappropriate. Moreover, from a medicinal point of view, toxicity can be used for treatment of malignant cells, such as cancer. In this study, highly biocompatible carbon nanodots (gCDs) were synthesized by reacting citric acid and urea in glycerol, which resulted in abundant hydroxyl functional groups on the particle surface. gCDs show excitation-dependent photoluminescence but with bright green to yellow emission. Importantly, a series of toxicity assessments showed that as-synthesized gCDs possessed exceptional biocompatibilities to various biological entities including 18 bacteria species, Petunia axillaris seedlings, and Artemia franciscana nauplii. Furthermore, the particles were shown to have low to no toxic effects on human embryonic kidney (HEK-293), breast (MCF-7), and oral squamous (CAL-27) carcinoma cell lines. Of particular interest, the gCDs displayed antiproliferative activities against ovarian choriocarcinoma cells (JAr/Jeg-3 cell lines), which may be further explored for cancer drug discovery.
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Selective toxicity of hydroxyl-rich carbon nanodots for cancer research
)
Abstract
The toxicity of nanoparticles in a biological system is an integration of effects arising from surface functionality, particle size, ionic dissolution, etc. This complexity suggests that generalization of a material's toxicity may be inappropriate. Moreover, from a medicinal point of view, toxicity can be used for treatment of malignant cells, such as cancer. In this study, highly biocompatible carbon nanodots (gCDs) were synthesized by reacting citric acid and urea in glycerol, which resulted in abundant hydroxyl functional groups on the particle surface. gCDs show excitation-dependent photoluminescence but with bright green to yellow emission. Importantly, a series of toxicity assessments showed that as-synthesized gCDs possessed exceptional biocompatibilities to various biological entities including 18 bacteria species, Petunia axillaris seedlings, and Artemia franciscana nauplii. Furthermore, the particles were shown to have low to no toxic effects on human embryonic kidney (HEK-293), breast (MCF-7), and oral squamous (CAL-27) carcinoma cell lines. Of particular interest, the gCDs displayed antiproliferative activities against ovarian choriocarcinoma cells (JAr/Jeg-3 cell lines), which may be further explored for cancer drug discovery.
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Acknowledgements
T. K. acknowledges the support of Australian Postgraduate Award and Queensland Smart Futures PhD Scholarship. Q. L. acknowledges Griffith University Research Infrastructure Funding and Griffith School of Engineering Research Seed Funding. The authors acknowledge Dr. Barry Wood at the University of Queensland for his assistance in XPS analyses, Dr. Fatima Naim at Queensland University of Technology for her assistance in plant toxicity assessments, and Dr. Giovanna Di Trapani for discussions on the TRx system.
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