Bioinspired Metal-Free Fluorescent Carbon Nanozyme with Dual Catalytic Activity to Confront Cellular Oxidative Damage

• Published in: ACS applied materials & interfaces Vol. 13; no. 13; pp. 15040 - 15052
• Main Authors: Shukla, Ashish K, Sharma, Chandni, Acharya, Amitabha
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 07.04.2021
• Subjects: Biological and Medical Applications of Materials and Interfaces; catalase and peroxidase activity; carbon nanosphere; nanozyme; fluorescence; oxidative stress
• ISSN: 1944-8244; 1944-8252
• DOI: 10.1021/acsami.1c03130

Development of metal-free, recyclable enzyme mimics is challenging and requires key chemical modifications at the molecular level. Here, nitrilotriacetic acid-functionalized carbon nanospheres (LC-CNS@NTA) were prepared from the nitrogen-rich weed Lantana camara (LC) using a simple hydrothermal reaction condition. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) studies revealed size of ∼160 ± 20 nm for LC-CNS@NTA whereas, the same showed fluorescence emission at ∼520 nm with a ∼63% quantum yield. Furthermore, LC-CNS@NTA showed strong peroxidase (Pxrd) activity toward a wide range of substrate viz., H2O2, 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine, and o-phenylenediamine with K m and V max values of ∼257 μM and 1.06 μM/s, 282 μM and 1.47 μM/s, and 270.8 μM and 1.647 μM/s, respectively. Interestingly, this also showed catalase (CAT) activity against H2O2 with K m and V max values of ∼0.374 μM and 1.87 μM/s, respectively. It was observed that LC-CNS@NTA could effectively reduce the oxidative stress-induced cytotoxicity of HEK293 cells via retention of mitochondrial membrane potential, prevention of lipid peroxidation and DNA damage. It was further found that LC-CNS@NTA-treated cells showed reduced level of intracellular protein carbonylation and protein aggregation. The finding of the present study is expected to pave the path for designing engineered metal-free carbon nanozyme with dual enzyme mimic activity.