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

非技术概述：碳点（CDots）是直径为10纳米的纳米颗粒。CDot的核心是由碳制成的，表面的涂层由无毒的有机或生物分子组成。近年来，CDots已被证明在可见光/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致氧化还原特性有关。本项目在已知CDots抗菌功能的基础上，将CDots的研究和开发扩展到针对病毒的CDots。病毒具有不同的结构，复制方式也不同于细菌，因此专门设计和修饰CDots和杂化dots，其核心由碳和其他材料组成，并进行合成和测试，以确定哪些对病毒最有效。这一项目的成功实施可能导致开发出有效的抗病毒药物，可能用于预防病毒传播和感染，解决公共卫生和安全方面的一些关键问题。该项目还为教师的研究发展、未被充分代表的少数民族学生的培训以及北卡罗来纳中央大学STEM项目的学生招募提供了极好的机会。技术概述：本项目旨在开发针对病毒的碳点（CDots）和新型碳基杂交点（CDots）。通过将TiO2掺杂或染料光敏剂包埋在碳纳米颗粒核心中，可以显著改善其光学性质和光动力效应，从而利用杂交点内两种成分的协同作用，获得更有效的抗病毒活性。利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），本项目有三个研究目标：1)评价选定的CDots平台对代表性病毒的抗病毒活性，通过各种病毒结合试验和感染性试验了解其特性-功能相关性。2)探索选择的杂化点（C/TiO2和C/染料光敏剂杂化点）对MNV和VSV更有效的抗病毒活性，包括系统评价CDots的主要性质（如点表面电荷、点大小和光学性质）与抗病毒效果的相关性。3)利用各种化学/生化分析工具和高分辨率显微技术，对CDots和杂交dots的抗病毒作用机制进行探索，重点研究CDots与病毒的相互作用、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破坏。该项目的成功实施将导致有效的抗病毒药物的开发，具有潜在的应用，以防止病毒传播和感染。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.