HyperABCD · Hyperaccumulator-grass-derived Antibacterial Boron-functionalized Carbon Dots: Synthesis and Cytotoxicological Evaluation

The antibiotics’ overuse exerts selective evolutionary pressure on microbial pathogens, leading to the emergence of resistant strains. To reduce the likelihood of future epi/pandemics of bacterial origin, it is, thus, essential to put alternatives in action and consume antibiotics more sparingly. While the heavy metal-based antimicrobial agents are convenient for some uses, they bring human and environmental toxicity issues and suffer from microbial resistance. With their potentially low risk of resistance development, carbon-based nanomaterials seem like promising substitutes. Carbon dots (CDs) are particularly interesting owing to their small size, good solubility, and relative affordability, and boron-doped CDs (BCDs) deserve even greater attention as they typically show high antimicrobial activity. However, our current understanding of the toxicity profile of BCDs is fragmented and limited to materials synthesized by small molecular synthetic precursors as carbon and boron sources. In the project HyperABCD, we will first show the hydrothermal conversion of a boron-hyperaccumulator plant (biomass) into BCDs. Then, we will explore the antibacterial activity of BCDs on Gram-negative and Gram-positive species using various bacterial susceptibility tests. Next, we will undertake toxicological evaluations at different levels. To this end, we will perform standard viability tests with various human cell lines as well as a mutagenicity test. The assembled research team is fully competent to realize the ambitious goals of the proposed cross-European effort. I am a multidisciplinary researcher specializing in antimicrobial nanocarbons. The primary host (Dr. Alberto Bianco, CNRS, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology) is among the pioneers of biomedical nanocarbon research, and our co-host Prof. Tom Coenye (Ghent University) is a renowned expert on microbiology. Our industrial partner, PavTec (Turkey), is a leading company in developing boron-based specialty chemicals.