Nontoxic Carbon Dots Potently Inhibit Human Insulin Fibrillation

Authors

Shanghao Li, University of Miami
Lingyu Wang, University of Miami
Charles C. Chusuei, Middle Tennessee State University
Valentina M. Suarez, University of Miami
Patricia Blackwelder, Nova Southeastern UniversityFollow
Miodrag Micic, Cerritos College; MP Biomedicals LLC
Jhony Orbulescu, MP Biomedicals LLC
Roger M. Leblanc, University of Miami

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Chemistry of Materials

ISSN

0897-4756

Publication Date

2-9-2015

Abstract

One prevention and therapeutic strategy for diseases associated with peptide or protein fibrillation is to inhibit or delay the fibrillation process. Carbon dots (C–Dots) have recently emerged as benign nanoparticles to replace toxic quantum dots and have attracted great attention because of their unique optical properties and potential applications in biological systems. However, the effect of C-Dots on peptide or protein fibrillation has not been explored. In this in vitro study, human insulin was selected as a model to investigate the effect of C-Dots on insulin fibrillation. Water-soluble fluorescent C-Dots with sizes less than 6 nm were prepared from carbon powder and characterized by UV–vis spectroscopy, fluorescence, Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometry, X-ray photoelectron spectrometry, transmission electron microscopy, and atomic force microscopy. These C-Dotswere able to efficiently inhibit insulin fibrillation in a concentration-dependent manner. Theinhibiting effect of C-Dots was even observed at 0.2 μg/mL. Importantly, 40 μg/mL of C-Dots prevent 0.2 mg/mL of human insulin from fibrillation for 5 days under 65 °C, whereas insulin denatures in 3 h under the same conditions without C-Dots. The inhibiting effect is likely due to the interaction between C-Dots and insulin species before elongation. Cytotoxicity study shows that these C-Dots have very low cytotoxicity. Therefore, these C-Dots have the potential to inhibit insulin fibrillation in biological systems and in the pharmaceutical industry for the processing and formulation of insulin.

DOI

10.1021/cm504572b

Volume

27

Issue

5

First Page

1764

Last Page

1771

Comments

©2015 American Chemical Society

NSUWorks Citation

Shanghao Li, Lingyu Wang, Charles C. Chusuei, Valentina M. Suarez, Patricia Blackwelder, Miodrag Micic, Jhony Orbulescu, and Roger M. Leblanc. 2015. Nontoxic Carbon Dots Potently Inhibit Human Insulin Fibrillation .Chemistry of Materials , (5) : 1764 -1771. https://nsuworks.nova.edu/occ_facarticles/481.