Carbon dots nanozyme for anti-inflammatory therapy via scavenging intracellular reactive oxygen species

Abstract

Developing an efficient antioxidant for anti-inflammatory therapy via scavenging reactive oxygen species (ROS) remains a great challenge owing to the insufficient activity and stability of traditional antioxidants. Herein, we explored and simply synthesized a biocompatible carbon dots (CDs) nanozyme with excellent scavenging activity of ROS for anti-inflammatory therapy. As expected, CDs nanozyme effectively eliminate many kinds of free radicals including •OH, O2•−, and ABTS+•. Benefiting from multienzyme activities against ROS, CDs nanozyme can decrease the levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, resulting in good anti-inflammatory effect. Taken together, this study not only sheds light on design of bioactive antioxidants but also broadens the biomedical application of CDs in the treatment of inflammation.