Development of New Photo-Activated Antibacterial Agents

 描述（申请人提供）：由细菌病原体引起的传染病广泛存在，给我们的医疗保健系统带来了重大挑战，从治疗需求到医院环境、食品和水供应的预防，以及全球公共卫生。 将军特别是细菌性病原体多重耐药的增加，已经威胁到细菌感染的有效预防和治疗。随着新的耐药机制的出现和全球传播速度与新药开发一样快，传统抗生素/抗菌剂领域不再能够满足社会的期望。这促使全球寻找替代的抗菌策略。一些新发现的材料及其相关技术，特别是那些可能在感染爆发前的各个阶段应用的材料及其相关技术，已经显示出巨大的潜力。其中最有效的是光活化的抗微生物剂，特别是那些对可见光有反应的抗微生物剂，在各种各样的应用中提供预防细菌感染的解决方案。碳量子点通常是“具有表面钝化的小碳纳米颗粒”。已知它们在整个可见光谱上具有广泛的光学吸收，并且与典型的光敏剂具有相似的机制，其在光照射下产生活性氧物质（ROS），但将光活化扩展到可见光，特别是对于潜在地利用天然阳光的机会。它们的可见光光动力效应已被证明可以杀死癌细胞。因此，预期在该机制和其他机制中对细菌具有光毒性。此外，对于碳基混合点，光毒性应该是通过点表面改性和/或掺杂其他元素而机械可调的。该项目旨在1）开发碳点的可见光激活抗菌功能; 2）开发碳基混合纳米点以增强抗菌性能。这种光化学抗菌技术的发展将解决传染病预防和治疗中的一些重大挑战。研究主题和环境将为本科生和研究生，特别是那些来自代表性不足的群体，提供极好的机会，为他们对项目的表现和成功做出贡献，同时在跨学科领域提供宝贵的培训。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Infectious diseases caused by bacterial pathogens are widespread, presenting major challenges to our healthcare systems, from treatment needs to preventions in hospital settings and food and water supplies, and to the global public health in general. Especially, the rise in multidrug resistance among bacterial pathogens has threatened the effective prevention and treatment of bacterial infections. As new resistance mechanisms emerge and spread globally as fast as new drug development, the realm of traditional antibiotics/antimicrobial agents is no longer able to meet society's expectations. This has motivated a global search for alternative antimicrobial strategies. Some of the newly discovered materials and their associated technologies, particularly those may be applied in various stages prior to outbreaks of infection, have shown great potential. Among the most effective are photo-activated antimicrobial agents, especially those responsive to visible light, providing solutions i prevention of bacterial infections across a wide variety of applications. Carbon dots are generally "small carbon nanoparticles with surface passivation". They are known for their broad optical absorption over the entire visible spectrum, and share similar mechanisms with those of typical photosensitizers, which under photo irradiation generate reactive oxygen species (ROS), but extend the photo- activation to visible light, especially for the opportunity to potentially us natural sunlight. Their visible-light photodynamic effect has been demonstrated for the killing of cancer cells. As such the photo toxicity against bacteria in this and other mechanisms is anticipated. Further, the photo toxicity should be mechanistically tunable with dot surface modification and/or doping with other elements for carbon-based hybrid dots. The project aims 1) To Exploit the Visible-Light-Activated Antibacterial Functions of Carbon Dots; and 2) To Develop Carbon-Based Hybrid Nano-Dots for Enhanced Antibacterial Performance. Development of such photochemical antimicrobial technology will address some major challenges in infectious disease prevention and treatment. The research topic and environment will provide excellent opportunities to undergraduate and graduate students, especially those from underrepresented groups, for their contributions to the performance and success of the project and, at the same time, valuable trainings in the interdisciplinary area.