Synthesis of carbon quantum dots for application of alleviating amyloid-β mediated neurotoxicity

Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been an intractable neurodegenerative disease among the elderly in the worldwide. One of the important pathogenic factors in AD is the aggregation of amyloid-β 1-42 (Aβ42) in AD patients' brain. Inhibition of Aβ peptide aggregation is considered as one of the effective approaches against AD. Herein, a pulsed laser ablation (PLA) method is used to fabricate ultra-small carbon quantum dots (C-QDs) with uniform size. The reduced Aβ42 aggregation by the C-QDs was confirmed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), thioflavin T assay and circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy. The results of cell viability experiments showed that the presence of the C-QDs could significantly reduce the cytotoxicity of Aβ42. Furthermore, in vivo studies demonstrate that C-QDs can decrease Aβ42 deposits and promote the biological activity of an AD model of Caenorhabditis elegans CL2006. This work demonstrates the viability of using ultrasmall C-QDs to inhibit amyloid-β aggregation and alleviate amyloid-β mediated neurotoxicity.