PMID- 34215792
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20211102
LR  - 20240402
IS  - 2045-2322 (Electronic)
IS  - 2045-2322 (Linking)
VI  - 11
IP  - 1
DP  - 2021 Jul 2
TI  - A pseudohomogeneous nanocarrier based on carbon quantum dots decorated with 
      arginine as an efficient gene delivery vehicle.
PG  - 13790
LID - 10.1038/s41598-021-93153-4 [doi]
LID - 13790
AB  - A pseudohomogeneous carrier as an emerging term refers to subnanometric 
      carbon-based vehicle with a high ability to interact with genetic materials to 
      form stable carboplex and successfully transfer them into the cell which will 
      result in inhibiting or expressing of therapeutic genes. Chitosan is a non-toxic 
      polyaminosaccharide used as a precursor in the presence of citric acid to produce 
      carbon quantum dots (CQDs), which decorated with arginine as a surface 
      passivation agent with high amine density in hydrothermal methodology. The 
      Arginine-CQDs are comprehensively characterized by Fourier-transform infrared 
      spectroscopy (FT-IR), Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-vis), Atomic force 
      microscopy (AFM), field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), 
      Energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) mapping, fluorescence, High-resolution transmission 
      electron microscopy (HR-TEM), zeta potential and X-ray powder diffraction (XRD). 
      In this regard, for the first time, carboplex are formed by electrostatic 
      conjugating of Arginine-CQDs with DNA to protect it from enzymatic degradation. 
      Moreover, the carboplex, like the chitosan precursor, has not shown toxicity 
      against AGS cell line. Interestingly, the Arginine-CQDs have exhibited an 
      excellent ability to overcome cell barriers to deliver into cells compared to 
      chitosan at the same weight ratio. The Arginine-CQDs/pEGFP (W/W) nanocomplex, not 
      only lead to transfection with a relatively higher efficiency than PEI polymer, 
      which is the "golden standard", but carboplex also demonstrates no significant 
      toxicity. Indeed, the EGFP expression level has reached to 2.4 +/- 0.2 via 
      Arginine-CQDs carboplex at W/W 50 weight ratio. To the best of our knowledge, 
      this is the first report includes chitosan-based CQDs functionalized by arginine 
      which is applied to serve as a pseudohomogeneous vehicle for gene transfection.
FAU - Rezaei, Aram
AU  - Rezaei A
AD  - Nano Drug Delivery Research Center, Health Technology Institute, Kermanshah 
      University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran. aram.rezaei@gmail.com.
FAU - Hashemi, Ehsan
AU  - Hashemi E
AD  - Department of Animal Biotechnology, National Institute of Genetic Engineering and 
      Biotechnology, P.O. Box: 14965-16, Tehran, Iran.
AD  - Diabetes Research Center, Endocrinology and Metabolism Clinical Sciences 
      Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
DEP - 20210702
PL  - England
TA  - Sci Rep
JT  - Scientific reports
JID - 101563288
RN  - 0 (enhanced green fluorescent protein)
RN  - 147336-22-9 (Green Fluorescent Proteins)
RN  - 7440-44-0 (Carbon)
RN  - 9012-76-4 (Chitosan)
RN  - 94ZLA3W45F (Arginine)
SB  - IM
MH  - Arginine/chemistry/*genetics
MH  - Carbon/*chemistry
MH  - Chitosan/chemistry
MH  - Gene Expression Regulation/drug effects
MH  - Gene Transfer Techniques
MH  - Green Fluorescent Proteins/*genetics
MH  - Humans
MH  - Microscopy, Atomic Force
MH  - Nanoparticles/*chemistry
MH  - Quantum Dots/chemistry
MH  - Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared
MH  - Transfection/methods
PMC - PMC8253742
COIS- The authors declare no competing interests.
EDAT- 2021/07/04 06:00
MHDA- 2021/11/03 06:00
PMCR- 2021/07/02
CRDT- 2021/07/03 05:56
PHST- 2021/04/06 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2021/06/22 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2021/07/03 05:56 [entrez]
PHST- 2021/07/04 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2021/11/03 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2021/07/02 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - 10.1038/s41598-021-93153-4 [pii]
AID - 93153 [pii]
AID - 10.1038/s41598-021-93153-4 [doi]
PST - epublish
SO  - Sci Rep. 2021 Jul 2;11(1):13790. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-93153-4.