Natural biomass-derived carbon dots as a potent solubilizer with high biocompatibility and enhanced antioxidant activity

Tong Wu; Menghan Li; Tingjie Li; Yafang Zhao; Jinye Yuan; Yusheng Zhao; Xingrong Tian; Ruolan Kong; Yan Zhao; Hui Kong; Yue Zhang; Huihua Qu

doi:10.3389/fmolb.2023.1284599

Natural biomass-derived carbon dots as a potent solubilizer with high biocompatibility and enhanced antioxidant activity

Front Mol Biosci. 2023 Nov 2:10:1284599. doi: 10.3389/fmolb.2023.1284599. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Tong Wu¹, Menghan Li², Tingjie Li¹, Yafang Zhao², Jinye Yuan², Yusheng Zhao², Xingrong Tian², Ruolan Kong², Yan Zhao², Hui Kong², Yue Zhang³, Huihua Qu^{2

4}

Affiliations

¹ School of Chinese Materia Medica, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China.
² School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China.
³ School of Life Science, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China.
⁴ Centre of Scientific Experiment, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China.

Abstract

Numerous natural compounds exhibit low bioavailability due to suboptimal water solubility. The solubilization methods of the modern pharmaceutical industry in contemporary pharmaceutical research are restricted by low efficiency, sophisticated technological requirements, and latent adverse effects. There is a pressing need to elucidate and implement a novel solubilizer to ameliorate these challenges. This study identified natural biomass-derived carbon dots as a promising candidate. We report on natural fluorescent carbon dots derived from Aurantia Fructus Immatures (AFI-CDs), which have exhibited a remarkable solubilization effect, augmenting naringin (NA) solubility by a factor of 216.72. Subsequent analyses suggest that the solubilization mechanism is potentially contingent upon the oration of a nanostructured complex (NA-AFI-CDs) between AFI-CDs and NA, mediated by intermolecular non-covalent bonds. Concomitantly, the synthesized NA-AFI-CDs demonstrated high biocompatibility, exceptional stability, and dispersion. In addition, NA-AFI-CDs manifested superior free radical scavenging capacity. This research contributes foundational insights into the solubilization mechanism of naringin-utilizing AFI-CDs and proffers a novel strategy that circumvents the challenges associated with the low aqueous solubility of water-insoluble drugs in the field of modern pharmaceutical science.

Keywords: antioxidant; biomass; carbon dots; nanocomplex; solubilization.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This study was supported by Grant for Qihuang Scholars of the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine (China, 90020163320012).