Australian Carbon Materials Centre (A-CMC), School of Chemical Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia.
J Nanobiotechnology. 2021 Oct 26;19(1):340. doi: 10.1186/s12951-021-01053-6.
Owing to their low cost, high catalytic efficiency and biocompatibility, carbon-based metal-free catalysts (C-MFCs) have attracted intense interest for various applications, ranging from energy through environmental to biomedical technologies. While considerable effort and progress have been made in mechanistic understanding of C-MFCs for non-biomedical applications, their catalytic mechanism for therapeutic effects has rarely been investigated. In this study, defect-rich graphene quantum dots (GQDs) were developed as C-MFCs for efficient ROS generation, specifically in the HO-rich tumor microenvironment to cause multi-level damages of subcellular components (even in nuclei). While a desirable anti-cancer performance was achieved, the catalytic performance was found to strongly depend on the defect density. It is for the first time that the defect-induced catalytic generation of ROS by C-MFCs in the tumor microenvironment was demonstrated and the associated catalytic mechanism was elucidated. This work opens a new avenue for the development of safe and efficient catalytic nanomedicine.
由于其低成本、高催化效率和生物相容性，基于碳的无金属催化剂 (C-MFCs) 引起了人们对从能源到环境再到生物医学技术等各种应用的浓厚兴趣。虽然在非生物医学应用的 C-MFCs 的机制理解方面已经做出了相当大的努力和进展，但它们在治疗效果方面的催化机制很少被研究。在这项研究中，开发了富含缺陷的石墨烯量子点 (GQDs) 作为 C-MFCs，以有效地产生 ROS，特别是在富含 HO 的肿瘤微环境中，以引起亚细胞成分的多级损伤（甚至在核内）。虽然实现了理想的抗癌性能，但发现催化性能强烈依赖于缺陷密度。这是首次证明了 C-MFCs 在肿瘤微环境中通过缺陷诱导的 ROS 催化生成，并阐明了相关的催化机制。这项工作为开发安全有效的催化纳米医学开辟了新途径。
