Carbon Dots as an Emergent Class of Antimicrobial Agents

Mattia Ghirardello, Javier Ramos-Soriano, M Carmen Galan

Research output: Contribution to journalReview article (Academic Journal)peer-review

106 Citations (Scopus)
306 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Antimicrobial resistance is a recognized global challenge. Tools for bacterial detection can combat antimicrobial resistance by facilitating evidence-based antibiotic prescribing, thus avoiding their overprescription, which contributes to the spread of resistance. Unfortunately, traditional culture-based identification methods take at least a day, while emerging alternatives are limited by high cost and a requirement for skilled operators. Moreover, photodynamic inactivation of bacteria promoted by photosensitisers could be considered as one of the most promising strategies in the fight against multidrug resistance pathogens. In this context, carbon dots (CDs) have been identified as a promising class of photosensitiser nanomaterials for the specific detection and inactivation of different bacterial species. CDs possess exceptional and tuneable chemical and photoelectric properties that make them excellent candidates for antibacterial theranostic applications, such as great chemical stability, high water solubility, low toxicity and excellent biocompatibility. In this review, we will summarize the most recent advances on the use of CDs as antimicrobial agents, including the most commonly used methodologies for CD and CD/composites syntheses and their antibacterial properties in both in vitro and in vivo models developed in the last 3 years.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1877
JournalNanomaterials
Volume11
Issue number8
Early online date22 Jul 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Funding: This research was funded by the European Research Council, grant number ERC-COG: 648239 (MG and MCG) and by the MSCA fellowship project 843720-BioNanoProbes (JRS). This publication has risen from discussion at COST Action GLYCONanoPROBES (CA18132), supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology).

Funding Information:
This research was funded by the European Research Council, grant number ERC-COG: 648239 (MG and MCG) and by the MSCA fellowship project 843720-BioNanoProbes (JRS). This publication has risen from discussion at COST Action GLYCONanoPROBES (CA18132), supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

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