Tian Zhenzhou, Li Jinyao, Miao Yanming, Lv Jinzhi
School of Life Science, Shanxi Normal University, Taiyuan 030006, China.
Nanomaterials (Basel). 2023 Dec 12;13(24):3122. doi: 10.3390/nano13243122.
Coal-based Carbon Dots (C-CDs) have gradually become a research focus due to the abundant raw materials and low preparation cost. Still, before coal-based carbon dots are widely used, a systematic biological toxicity study is the basis for the safe utilization of C-CDs. However, the level of toxicity and the mechanism of toxicity of C-CDs for organisms are still unclear. To ensure the safe utilization of C-CDs, the present study investigated C-CD nanomaterials as stressors to probe their biotoxic effects on plant, bacterial, and animal cells as well as the photocatalytic oxidative properties of C-CDs. The results showed that low concentrations of C-CDs could promote various growth indicators of wheat, and high concentrations of C-CDs had significant inhibitory effects on wheat growth; C-CDs had significant toxic effects on () at specific concentrations and were light-related; meanwhile, at concentrations of 1-5000 μg/mL, C-CDs were almost not toxic to HeLa cells; however, when irradiated at 365 nm, even low concentrations of C-CDs were toxic to cells by the mechanism that C-CDs could generate singlet oxygen (O) by photocatalytic oxidation under 365 nm excitation light, resulting in enhanced toxicity of C-CDs to cells.
基于煤的碳点（C-CDs）由于原料丰富且制备成本低，已逐渐成为研究热点。然而，在基于煤的碳点被广泛应用之前，系统的生物毒性研究是其安全利用的基础。然而，C-CDs对生物体的毒性水平和毒性机制仍不清楚。为确保C-CDs的安全利用，本研究将C-CD纳米材料作为应激源，探究其对植物、细菌和动物细胞的生物毒性效应以及C-CDs的光催化氧化特性。结果表明，低浓度的C-CDs可促进小麦的各项生长指标，而高浓度的C-CDs对小麦生长具有显著抑制作用；C-CDs在特定浓度下对（）具有显著毒性作用且与光有关；同时，在1-5000μg/mL浓度范围内，C-CDs对HeLa细胞几乎无毒；然而，当在365nm波长下照射时，即使是低浓度的C-CDs也会对细胞产生毒性，其机制是C-CDs在365nm激发光下通过光催化氧化产生单线态氧（O），导致C-CDs对细胞的毒性增强。
