1. Turning carbon dots into selenium bearing nanoplatforms with in vitro GPx-like activity and pro-oxidant activity
- Author
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Pérez Garrido, Laura, Ortega Muñoz, Mariano, Hernández Mateo, Fernando, López Jaramillo, Francisco Javier, and Santoyo González, Francisco
- Subjects
Janus element ,Nanomedicine ,Glutathione peroxidase-like activity ,Carbon dots ,General Materials Science ,Electrical and Electronic Engineering ,Condensed Matter Physics ,Selenium nanoparticles ,Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics - Abstract
Selenium (Se) has been defined as the “Janus element”, with one face showing antioxidant activity and the other pro-oxidant activity. The biological effect of Se depends on both dose and speciation. Se nanoparticles are attracting major interest, although their large-scale preparation for biomedical applications is not trivial. We hypothesize that acid anhydride-coated carbon dots (AACD) are an attractive platform for preparing nanoparticles containing chemically defined Se. The reaction of AA-CD with 3- selenocyanatopropan-1-amine yields carbon dots bearing selenocyanate and carboxylate groups (CD-SeCN) that allow for tuning the hydrosolubility. CD-SeCN has a Se content of 0.36 μmol per mg of nanoparticles, and they show the typical photoluminescence of carbon dots. The selenocyanate groups (SeCN) exhibited glutathione peroxidase-like activity and cytotoxicity. Data show that antioxidant behavior differs between normal and tumor cells, and the evaluation on HEK293 and A549 cells reveals that the toxicity of CD-SeCN depends on dose, time, and intracellular glutathione (GSH) content. The toxicity of CD-SeCN decreases with the time of incubation and the cell death mechanism switches from necrosis to apoptosis, indicating that CD-SeCN is neutralized. Additionally, high levels of intracellular GSH exert a protective effect. These results support a pharmacological potential in cancers with low levels of intracellular GSH. The use of AA-CD as nanoplatforms is a general strategy that paves the way for the engineering of advanced nanosystems, Spanish institution Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades (No. CTQ2017- 86125-P), Unit of Excellence in Chemistry Applied to Biomedicine and the Environment, Centro de Instrumentacion Cientifica (Universidad de Granada), Universidad de Granada/CBUA, Springer Nature
- Published
- 2023