Owing to their unique morphology, ultrasmall lateral sizes, and exceptional properties, graphene quantum dots (GQDs) hold great potential in many applications, especially in the fields of electrochemical biosensors, bioimaging, drug delivery, gene delivery, etc. Their biosafety and potential genotoxicity to human and animal cells have been a growing concern in recent years. Especially, the potential DNA damage caused by GQDs is very crucial but still unclear. In this study, the effect of GQDs on DNA damage has been evaluated by a combination of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and density functional theory. Our results demonstrate that the DNA damaging mechanism of GQDs depends on the size of GQDs. The small GQDs (seven benzene rings) tend to enter into the interior of DNA molecules and cause a DNA base mismatch. The relatively large GQDs (61 benzene rings) tend to adsorb onto the two ends of a DNA molecule and cause DNA unwinding. Due to the strong interaction between guanine (G) and GQDs, the effect of GQDs is much larger on G than on the other three bases (A, C, and T). In addition, the concentration of GQDs could also affect the results of DNA damaging.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcb.0c05882 | DOI Listing |
Small Methods
January 2025
Institute of Particle Technology (LFG), Department of Chemical and Biological, Engineering (CBI), Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Cauerstraße 4, 91058, Erlangen, Germany.
Knowledge of the structure-property relationships of functional nanomaterials, including, for example, their size- and composition-dependent photoluminescence (PL) and particle-to-particle variations, is crucial for their design and reproducibility. Herein, the Angstrom-resolution capability of an analytical ultracentrifuge combined with an in-line multiwavelength emission detection system (MWE-AUC) for measuring the sedimentation coefficient-resolved spectrally corrected PL spectra of dispersed nanoparticles is demonstrated. The capabilities of this technique are shown for giant-shell CdSe/CdS quantum dots (g-QDs) with a PL quantum yield (PL QY) close to unity capped with oleic acid and oleylamine ligands.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnal Chim Acta
February 2025
School of Life Sciences, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Medical Science and Technology Innovation Center, Shandong First Medical University & Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, Jinan, 250117, PR China. Electronic address:
Background: Glioma accounts for 80 % of all malignant primary brain tumors with a high mortality rate. Histopathological examination is the current diagnostic methods for glioma, but its invasive surgical interventions can cause cerebral edema or impair neural functioning. Liquid biopsy proves to be an efficient method for glioma detection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInorg Chem
January 2025
School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, and Institute for Innovative Materials and Energy, Yangzhou University, 180 Si-Wang-Ting Road, Yangzhou 225002, China.
The interaction between electrocatalytic active centers and their support is essential to the electrocatalytic performance, which could regulate the electronic structure of the metal centers but requires precise design. Herein, we report on covalent grafting of graphene quantum dots (GQDs) on stepped TiO as a support to anchoring cobalt phosphide nanoparticles (CoP/GQD/S-TiO) for electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The covalent ester bonds between GQDs and TiO endow enlarged anchoring sites to achieve highly dispersed electroactive CoP nanoparticles but, more importantly, provide an efficient electron-transfer pathway from TiO to GQDs which could regulate the electronic structure of CoP.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMaterials (Basel)
December 2024
Shandong Jinhong New Material Co. Ltd., Weifang 262100, China.
Nitrogen-doped graphene quantum dots (N-GQDs) are widely used in biosensing, catalysis, and energy storage due to their excellent conductivity, high specific surface area, unique quantum size effects, and optical properties. In this paper, we successfully synthesized N-GQDs using a facile hydrothermal approach and investigated the effects of different hydrothermal temperatures and times on the morphology and structure of N-GQDs. The results indicated that the size of N-GQDs gradually increased and they eventually aggregated into graphene fragments with increasing temperature or reaction time.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTauopathies, a group of neurodegenerative disorders, are characterized by the abnormal aggregation of tau proteins into neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), driving synaptic dysfunction, neuronal loss, and disease progression through tau aggregate propagation. Graphene quantum dots (GQDs) functionalized with - cysteine ( -GQDs) have shown promise in inhibiting tau aggregation and transmission π-π stacking and electrostatic interactions with tau proteins. However, the non-specific binding of GQDs to various proteins in the physiological environment, such as serum albumin, limits their clinical translation.
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