Excellence in Research: Unveiling the Potent Photo-activated Antiviral Functions of Carbon Dots and Derived Hybrid Dots

非技术综述：碳点(CDot)是直径为10纳米的纳米颗粒。CDOT的核心由碳组成，表面的涂层由无毒的有机或生物分子组成。近年来，CDot被证明在可见光/自然光下具有高效的抗菌功能，这与其独特的光学性质和光诱导的氧化还原特性有关。在CDots已知抗菌功能的基础上，该项目将CDot的研究和开发扩大到靶向病毒。病毒具有不同的结构，复制方式与细菌不同，因此，我们合成了专门设计和修改的CDot和杂交点，其核心由碳和其他材料组成，并进行了测试，以确定那些对靶向病毒最有效的CDot。该项目的成功实施可能导致开发有效的抗病毒药物，具有预防病毒传播和感染的潜在应用，解决公共卫生和安全方面的一些关键问题。该项目还为北卡罗来纳中央大学教师的研究发展、未被充分代表的少数族裔学生的培训以及招收学生进入STEM项目提供了极好的机会。技术总结：该项目旨在开发碳点(CDot)和新型碳基杂交点来靶向病毒。将二氧化钛掺杂或染料光敏剂包裹在核心碳纳米颗粒中的杂化网点旨在显著改善光学性质和增强光动力学效应，从而利用杂化网点中两种成分的协同效应来实现更有效的抗病毒活性。通过使用两种结构不同的模型病毒，小鼠诺如病毒(MNV)和水疱性口炎病毒(VSV)，该项目有三个研究目标：1)评估选定的CDots平台对典型病毒的抗病毒活性，通过使用各种病毒结合分析和传染性分析来了解特性与功能的相关性。2)探索筛选出的杂化网点(C/TiO2点和C/染料光敏剂杂化网点)对MNV和VSV具有更有效的抗病毒活性，包括系统地评价主要CDot特性之间的相关性，如网点表面电荷、网点大小和光学特性与其抗病毒效果的相关性。3)CDot和杂交点抗病毒作用的机制探索，重点是利用各种化学/生化分析工具和高分辨率显微镜方法，研究点与病毒之间的相互作用、活性氧(ROS)的产生、病毒颗粒的完整性以及病毒蛋白和病毒基因组完整性的损害。该项目的成功实施导致了有效抗病毒药物的开发，该药物具有预防病毒传播和感染的潜在应用。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Non-technical Summary: Carbon dots (CDots) are nanoparticles of diameter 10 nm. The core in a CDot is made of carbon, and the coating on the surface is composed of nontoxic organic or biological molecules. CDots have recently been demonstrated to have highly effective antibacterial function under visible/natural light, which is associated with their unique optical properties and photoinduced redox characteristics. Building upon the known antibacterial function of CDots, this project expands the research and development of CDots to target viruses. Viruses have different structures, and replicate in a different way from bacteria, so specifically designed and modified CDots and hybrid dots with the core composed of carbon and other materials are synthesized and tested to identify those that are most effective to target viruses. The successful execution of this project could lead to the development of effective antiviral agents with potential applications for preventing viral transmission and infection, addressing some of the critical issues in public health and safety. The project also provides excellent opportunities for the research development of faculty, the training of underrepresented minority students, and the recruitment of students into the pipeline to STEM programs at North Carolina Central University.Technical Summary: This project is to develop carbon dots (CDots) and novel carbon-based hybrid dots to target viruses. The hybrid dots, with TiO2 doping or dye photosensitizer encapsulation in core carbon nanoparticles, are designed to significantly improve the optical properties and enhance photodynamic effects, thus exploiting the synergistic effect of the two constituents within the hybrid dots for more effective antiviral activities. With the use of two structurally different model viruses, murine norovirus (MNV) and vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), the project has three research aims: 1) Evaluation of the antiviral activities of selected CDots platforms against representative viruses, towards the understanding of property-function correlations by using various viral binding assays and infectivity assays. 2) Exploration of selected hybrid dots (C/TiO2 and C/dye photosensitizer hybrid dots) for more effective antiviral activities against MNV and VSV, including a systematic evaluation on the correlation between major CDots properties such as dot surface charge, dot size, and optical properties and their antiviral effectiveness. 3) Mechanistic exploration of CDots and hybrid dots' antiviral actions, focusing on the interactions between the dots and viruses, reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, viral particle integrity, and damages in viral proteins and viral genomic integrity by using various chemical/biochemical analytic tools and high-resolution microscopy methods. The successful execution of this project leads to the development of effective antiviral agents with potential applications for preventing viral transmission and infection.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.