Synthesis of carbon quantum dots for application of alleviating amyloid-β mediated neurotoxicity

Haolin Li; Yufei Zhang; Jianwei Ding; Ting Wu; Shuangfei Cai; Wei Zhang; Rong Cai; Chunying Chen; Rong Yang

doi:10.1016/j.colsurfb.2022.112373

Synthesis of carbon quantum dots for application of alleviating amyloid-β mediated neurotoxicity

Colloids Surf B Biointerfaces. 2022 Apr:212:112373. doi: 10.1016/j.colsurfb.2022.112373. Epub 2022 Jan 26.

Authors

Haolin Li¹, Yufei Zhang¹, Jianwei Ding², Ting Wu², Shuangfei Cai², Wei Zhang³, Rong Cai², Chunying Chen⁴, Rong Yang⁵

Affiliations

¹ CAS Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety, Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China; Sino-Danish College, Sino-Danish Center for Education and Research, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
² CAS Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety, Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
³ Institute of Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics, Beijing 100088, China. Electronic address: zhang_wei@iapcm.ac.cn.
⁴ CAS Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety, Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China. Electronic address: chenchy@nanoctr.cn.
⁵ CAS Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety, Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China; Sino-Danish College, Sino-Danish Center for Education and Research, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China. Electronic address: yangr@nanoctr.cn.

PMID: 35101826
DOI: 10.1016/j.colsurfb.2022.112373

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been an intractable neurodegenerative disease among the elderly in the worldwide. One of the important pathogenic factors in AD is the aggregation of amyloid-β 1-42 (Aβ42) in AD patients' brain. Inhibition of Aβ peptide aggregation is considered as one of the effective approaches against AD. Herein, a pulsed laser ablation (PLA) method is used to fabricate ultra-small carbon quantum dots (C-QDs) with uniform size. The reduced Aβ42 aggregation by the C-QDs was confirmed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), thioflavin T assay and circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy. The results of cell viability experiments showed that the presence of the C-QDs could significantly reduce the cytotoxicity of Aβ42. Furthermore, in vivo studies demonstrate that C-QDs can decrease Aβ42 deposits and promote the biological activity of an AD model of Caenorhabditis elegans CL2006. This work demonstrates the viability of using ultrasmall C-QDs to inhibit amyloid-β aggregation and alleviate amyloid-β mediated neurotoxicity.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; Aβ42 aggregation; Aβ42 inhibitors; Carbon quantum dots; Pulsed laser ablation method.

MeSH terms

Aged
Alzheimer Disease* / drug therapy
Amyloid beta-Peptides / chemistry
Carbon / pharmacology
Humans
Neurodegenerative Diseases*
Peptide Fragments / chemistry
Quantum Dots*

Substances

Amyloid beta-Peptides
Peptide Fragments
Carbon