Green Phellodendri Chinensis Cortex-based Carbon Dots for Ameliorating Imiquimod-induced Psoriasis-like Inflammation in Mice

Abstract

Background: Carbon dots with multifaceted advantages have been provided hope for development brand-new nanodrug for treating thorny diseases.This study developed a green and simple calcination method to prepare novel cardon dots (CDs) as promising drug for psoriasis treatment. The as-prepared CDs using Phellodendri Chinensis Cortex (PCC) as sole precursor were characterized by a series of methods, mainly including electron microscopy, optical technology and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS).Results: Results displayed that fluorescence (Quantum yield =5.63%) and nontoxic PCC-based CDs (PCC-CDs) with abundant chemical groups exhibited solubility and tiny sizes at average of (1.93 ± 0.53) nm, which may be beneficial for its inherent biological activity. Moreover, by using the typical imiquimod (IMQ) – induced psoriasis-like skin mouse model, we firstly demonstrated the pronounced anti-psoriasis activity of as-prepared PCC-CDs on ameliorating the appearance, psoriasis area and severity index (PASI) scores as well as histopathological morphology of both back tissues and right ears in IMQ-induced mouse. Further potential mechanisms behind the anti-psoriasis activities may be related to the anti-inflammation effects of PCC-CDs by descending the serum levels of proinflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-17A). Conclusion: These results suggested that PCC-CDs have potential to be an anti-psoriasis candidate for clinical applications to treat psoriasis, which not only provided an evidence for further broadening the biological application of CDs, but also provided a potential hope for application nanodrugs to treat thorny diseases.

Chinese Medicinal Herb-Derived Carbon Dots for Common Diseases: Efficacies and Potential Mechanisms

“…A number of evidences show that CDs obtained from different precursors (Zhao et al, 2015;Atchudan et al, 2016) or preparation conditions (preparing temperature, time, et al) (Sahu et al, 2012;Veltri et al, 2020) exhibited different properties, mainly in terms of size, charge, and chemical groups. The differences in these properties have been shown to be closely related to the bioactivities of CDs, which further offered a plausible explanation for the fact that different activities on CDs presently found (Zhang et al, 2021). Phellodendron chinense C. K. Schneid.…”

“…Carbonisata-CDs obtained at 400 °C have been demonstrated compared to CDs prepared at other temperature conditions (325 °C and 475 °C). Consequently, the mechanism correlated with structure-function relationship between TCM-CDs obtained at different preparation process and the corresponding bioactivity is still a challenge (Zhang et al, 2021). Additionally, whether all carbon points can be extracted from the charcoal drug needs further study.…”

“…[Paeoniaceae] (Zhao et al, 2020) and Phellodendron chinense C. K. Schneid. [Rutaceae] (Zhang et al, 2021). Based on this knowledge, a variety of herbs-derived CDs formulations were prepared, and these CDs derived from various natural products that exhibit different biological activities (other than hemostasis) are summarized in Table 2.…”

Improving the Extraction of Active Ingredients from Medicinal Plants by XynA Modification

“…Salvia miltiorrhiza and Phellodendron chinense are both perennial medicinal plants and are cultivated widely. Many different pharmacological activities have been reported, such as antitumor, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory activities [17,18]. Salvianic acid A and berberine are the main active ingredients of Radix Salvia miltiorrhizae and Cortex Phellodendron chinensis, respectively, in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia.…”