Aspirin-Based Carbon Dots, a Good Biocompatibility of Material Applied for Bioimaging and Anti-Inflammation

Abstract

The emerging photoluminescent carbon-based nanomaterials are promising in various fields besides cell imaging and carrier transport. Carbon nanomaterials with specific biological functions, however, are rarely investigated. Aspirin is a very common anti-inflammatory medication to relieve aches and pains. In this study, we have tried to create a carbon nanoparticle with aspirin, and we expect that this new carbon nanoparticle will have both anti-inflammatory and fluorescent biomarker functions. Fluorescent aspirin-based carbon dots (FACDs) were synthesized by condensing aspirin and hydrazine through a one-step microwave-assisted method. Imaging data demonstrated that FACDs efficiently entered into human cervical carcinoma and mouse monocyte macrophage cells in vitro with low cell toxicity. Results from quantitative polymerase chain reaction and histological analysis indicated that FACDs possessed effective anti-inflammatory effects in vitro and in vivo compared to aspirin only. Hematology, serum biochemistry, and histology results suggested that FACDs also had no significant toxicity in vivo. Our results clearly demonstrate that FACDs have dual functions, cellular imaging/bioimaging and anti-inflammation, and suggest that FACDs have great potential in future clinical applications.

Synthesis of ginsenoside Re-based carbon dots applied for bioimaging and effective inhibition of cancer cells

“…Recently, researchers have found that some of the CDs using green carbon sources including green tea, garlic, pepper, lysine and so on or drugs such as aspirin may get both fluorescent characters and bioactivities such as anticancer, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. [30][31][32][33][34] These attractive CDs can show significant bioactivities when they are used for tracing and bioimaging in vivo or vitro. It is a fascinating challenge to form the CDs having both biological activities and fluorescent property after high temperature hydrothermal synthesis.…”

One‐Step Hydrothermal Synthesis of Nitrogen‐Doped Conjugated Carbonized Polymer Dots with 31% Efficient Red Emission for In Vivo Imaging

“…Furthermore, the size, shape and surface chemistry of nanoparticles may influence the cellular uptake process. Besides, the different cell types could also have an effect on the different cellular distribution of CPDs‐50 …”

Bone Tissue Engineering via Carbon‐Based Nanomaterials

“…Thus, C‐dots with excellent PL property and intrinsic bone binding/tracking ability are highly desired. Previous studies have shown that C‐dots can carry some of the intrinsic properties of their carbon precursors under certain conditions . Inspired by these studies, carbon precursors with a high affinity towards bone have been tested in the hope to prepare C‐dots with intrinsic bone crack detection ability.…”