Influence of the chirality of carbon nanodots on their interaction with proteins and cells

Huijie Yan; Michele Cacioppo; Saad Megahed; Francesca Arcudi; Luka Đorđević; Dingcheng Zhu; Florian Schulz; Maurizio Prato; Wolfgang J Parak; Neus Feliu

doi:10.1038/s41467-021-27406-1

Influence of the chirality of carbon nanodots on their interaction with proteins and cells

Nat Commun. 2021 Dec 10;12(1):7208. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-27406-1.

Authors

Huijie Yan^#¹, Michele Cacioppo^#^{1

2}, Saad Megahed^{1

3}, Francesca Arcudi², Luka Đorđević², Dingcheng Zhu^{1

4}, Florian Schulz¹, Maurizio Prato^{5

6

7}, Wolfgang J Parak^{8

9}, Neus Feliu^{10

11}

Affiliations

¹ Fachbereich Physik, Center for Hybrid Nanostructures (CHyN), Universitat Hamburg, 22607, Hamburg, Germany.
² Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, INSTM UdR Trieste, University of Trieste, Via Licio Giorgieri 1, 34127, Trieste, Italy.
³ Physics Department, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt.
⁴ College of Material, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, PR China.
⁵ Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, INSTM UdR Trieste, University of Trieste, Via Licio Giorgieri 1, 34127, Trieste, Italy. mprato@cicbiomagune.es.
⁶ Center for Cooperative Research in Biomaterials (CIC biomaGUNE), Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Paseo de Miramon 182, 20014, Donostia San Sebastian, Spain. mprato@cicbiomagune.es.
⁷ Basque Foundation for Science, Ikerbasque, 48013, Bilbao, Spain. mprato@cicbiomagune.es.
⁸ Fachbereich Physik, Center for Hybrid Nanostructures (CHyN), Universitat Hamburg, 22607, Hamburg, Germany. wolfgang.parak@uni-hamburg.de.
⁹ Center for Cooperative Research in Biomaterials (CIC biomaGUNE), Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Paseo de Miramon 182, 20014, Donostia San Sebastian, Spain. wolfgang.parak@uni-hamburg.de.
¹⁰ Fachbereich Physik, Center for Hybrid Nanostructures (CHyN), Universitat Hamburg, 22607, Hamburg, Germany. neus.feliu@physnet.uni-hamburg.de.
¹¹ Fraunhofer Center for Applied Nanotechnology (CAN), 20146, Hamburg, Germany. neus.feliu@physnet.uni-hamburg.de.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Carbon nanodots with opposite chirality possess the same major physicochemical properties such as optical features, hydrodynamic diameter, and colloidal stability. Here, a detailed analysis about the comparison of the concentration of both carbon nanodots is carried out, putting a threshold to when differences in biological behavior may be related to chirality and may exclude effects based merely on differences in exposure concentrations due to uncertainties in concentration determination. The present study approaches this comparative analysis evaluating two basic biological phenomena, the protein adsorption and cell internalization. We find how a meticulous concentration error estimation enables the evaluation of the differences in biological effects related to chirality.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adsorption
Biocompatible Materials
Biological Phenomena*
Carbon / chemistry*
HeLa Cells
Humans
Nanoparticles / chemistry*
THP-1 Cells

Substances

Biocompatible Materials
Carbon