College of Chemistry and Materials Engineering, Anhui Science and Technology University, Bengbu 233000, China.
School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China.
ACS Appl Bio Mater. 2022 Jul 18;5(7):3290-3299. doi: 10.1021/acsabm.2c00292. Epub 2022 Jun 14.
It is very challenging to design nanomaterials with both excellent antibacterial activity and cytocompatibility when facing bacterial infection. Here, inspired by antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), we fabricate carbon quantum dots (CQDs) derived from hydrophobic tryptophan and hydrophilic lysine or arginine (Lys/Trp-CQDs and Arg/Trp-CQDs), which possess amphipathic properties. These CQDs could effectively destroy bacterial membranes without developing resistance, inhibit biofilms formed by , and exhibit good biocompatibility. The antibacterial activities are caused by not only surface cationic structures and excess intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated by the CQDs but also the effects of the surface hydrophobic groups. These combined mechanisms of actions lead to bacterial membrane disruption, which raises the hope for combating bacterial infection without concern about drug resistance. What's more, the effect of amphiphilicity on balancing sterilization with biocompatibility expands the research ideas for developing available antibacterial nanomaterials.
当面临细菌感染时，设计既具有优异抗菌活性又具有细胞相容性的纳米材料极具挑战性。在这里，受抗菌肽（AMPs）的启发，我们制备了源自疏水性色氨酸和亲水性赖氨酸或精氨酸（Lys/Trp-CQDs 和 Arg/Trp-CQDs）的碳量子点（CQDs），它们具有两亲性。这些 CQD 可以有效破坏细菌膜而不会产生耐药性，抑制 形成的生物膜，并表现出良好的 生物相容性。CQD 不仅具有表面阳离子结构和过量的细胞内活性氧（ROS），而且还具有表面疏水性基团的作用，从而具有抗菌活性。这些联合作用机制导致细菌膜破裂，为解决细菌感染问题提供了希望，而不必担心耐药性问题。更重要的是，两亲性在平衡杀菌和生物相容性方面的作用扩展了开发可用抗菌纳米材料的研究思路。
