From Cow Manure to Bioactive Carbon Dots: A Light-up Probe for Bioimaging Investigations, Glucose Detection and Potential Immunotherapy Agent for Melanoma Skin Cancer

Hillesheim Horst, Frederico; Vitoria da Silva Rodrigues, Carime; Pimenta Rocha Carvalho, Pedro Henrique; Monteiro Leite, Amanda; Bentes Azevedo, Ricardo; Neto, Brenno A.D.; Correa, Jose Raimundo; Pereira Garcia, Monica; Alotaibi, Saud; Henini, Mohamed; Braun Chaves, Sacha; Rodrigues, Marcelo Oliveira

Abstract

Bioactive carbon dots (C-dots) with ca. 4 nm were successfully produced with singular photophysical properties, low-toxicity and interesting immunological response. The optical properties of the C-dots were investigated and the “light-up” behaviour enabled them to be explored in glucose detection and bioimaging experiments (mitochondrial selective probe). C-dots were not selective to the tumour region and several fluorescent spots were visualized spread on animal bodies. The histology investigations showed that cancer-bearing mice treated with C-dots presented a large number of regions with necrosis and inflammatory infiltrates, which were not identified for cancer-bearing mice without the treatment. These results suggested that C-dots have the potential to be explored as an immune therapy agent for melanoma skin cancer.

Citation

Hillesheim Horst, F., Vitoria da Silva Rodrigues, C., Pimenta Rocha Carvalho, P. H., Monteiro Leite, A., Bentes Azevedo, R., Neto, B. A., …Rodrigues, M. O. (2021). From Cow Manure to Bioactive Carbon Dots: A Light-up Probe for Bioimaging Investigations, Glucose Detection and Potential Immunotherapy Agent for Melanoma Skin Cancer. RSC Advances, 2021(11), 6346-6352. https://doi.org/10.1039/D0RA10859F

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 18, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Feb 3, 2021
• Publication Date: Feb 3, 2021
• Deposit Date: Feb 16, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 4, 2021
• Journal: RSC Advances
• Electronic ISSN: 2046-2069
• Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 2021
• Issue: 11
• Pages: 6346-6352
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/D0RA10859F
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/5312506
• Publisher URL: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2021/ra/d0ra10859f#!divAbstract