College of Pharmacy, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400016, China.
Chongqing Key Laboratory of Prevention and Treatment for Occupational Diseases and Poisoning, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical and pharmaceutical College, Chongqing 400060, P. R. China.
J Mater Chem B. 2024 Oct 17;12(40):10357-10366. doi: 10.1039/d4tb01294a.
Chirality is a ubiquitous phenomenon in nature. The advent of nanomaterials has led to a gradual evolution of chiral studies from the molecular scale to the nanoscale. The emergence of carbon dots (CDs) has inaugurated a novel domain in the scientific and technological realms of carbon nanomaterials. In recent years, CDs have attracted increasing attention due to their luminescent properties, excellent biocompatibility and remarkable bioactivity. However, little attention has been paid to the chirality of the CDs and, in particular, the differences between CDs synthesized from racemic compounds and other chiral CDs, as well as the differences in the biological effects of chiral CDs, remain to be explored. Here, chiral CDs were synthesized from L-/D-/DL-arginine, and the differences in various aspects of chiral CDs were evaluated. We found that L-CDs without extreme differences in structure had brighter fluorescence and a more significant ability of NO generation and lipid droplet inhibition than the other two chiral CDs. Combined with its better drug loading and release ability, we validated its superior efficacy in tumor treatment. Therefore, this study provides a basis for further research on chiral carbon dots and their differences.
手性是自然界中普遍存在的现象。纳米材料的出现使得手性研究从分子尺度逐渐发展到纳米尺度。碳点（CDs）的出现开创了碳纳米材料科学技术领域的一个新领域。近年来，由于其发光性质、优异的生物相容性和显著的生物活性，CDs 引起了越来越多的关注。然而，人们对 CDs 的手性关注甚少，特别是对由外消旋化合物合成的 CDs 与其他手性 CDs 之间的差异，以及手性 CDs 的生物学效应的差异，仍有待探索。在这里，我们从 L-/D-/DL-精氨酸合成了手性 CD，并评估了手性 CD 在各个方面的差异。我们发现，L-CDs 的结构没有明显差异，其荧光更亮，生成 NO 的能力和抑制脂滴的能力比另外两种手性 CD 更强。结合其更好的载药和释放能力，我们验证了其在肿瘤治疗中的优越疗效。因此，本研究为进一步研究手性碳点及其差异提供了依据。
