Immunomodulatory activities of novel carbon quantum dots on in vitro activated mammalian macrophages

Quantum dots have been utilized in medicine and biology due to their biocompatibility as well as fluorescent properties. In medicinal and biological applications, they have been widely used for their in vivo imaging capacities as well as drug delivery and depending on the functional groups sometimes as treatment agents. They can be used to study the cell transport mechanisms such as functional heterogeneity of cells, diffusion movements of membrane transport proteins, and intracellular organelle labeling thanks to their fluorescent properties. Their easy to modify nature enables addition of the functional groups to their structures to make them gain different functions as well as localization properties within the cells and the body. In most of the studies their possible immunomodulatory roles are omitted and in our study we aimed to generate a series of novel carbon quantum dots that can be used as drug delivery vehicle or as active ingredient against inflammation. These novel carbon quantum dots were tested on the in vitro activated mammalian macrophages to examine their effects on the production of the inflammatory cytokines by ELISA method. Our results suggest that depending on the functional groups there were differential immunomodulatory activities of these novel carbon quantum dots. A set of these can be utilized as safe drug delivery agents that would not affect the response and the cell viability of the macrophages. Whereas another set can be utilized as anti-inflammatory drug candidates.