Functionalized starch for formulation of graphitic carbon nanodots as viricidal/anticancer laborers

Biocompatibility of carbon nanodots (CNDs) ingrained from biopolymers are considered as prerequisite characters for their successive exploitation in different biomedical purposes. CNDs are known to be categorized to carbogenic nanodots (CgNDs) and graphitic nanodots (GNDs). The point of novelty in the current approach is to study the effect of chemical medication for starch before and after its functionalization with glucose, to ingrain carbon nanodots, that were sequentially applicable as viricidal and anticancer laborers. The represented data revealed that, CgNDs were nucleated from alkali-hydrolyzed starch exhibited with particle size of 4.8 ± 1.8 nm, whereas, glucose-functionalized starch was successfully exploited for ingraining of GNDs with particle size of 3.1 ± 1.3 nm. The viricidal action of the prepared CgNDs and GNDs against Low Pathogenic Coronavirus (229E) was estimated via CPE-inhibition Assay and the obtained IC50 was 61.2 and 29.6 mg/mL for CgNDs and GNDs, respectively. The synthesized CgNDs and GNDs were tested against human non-small cell lung cancer cell line (NSCLC, A549) via Sulforhodamine B (SRB) assay and the estimated IC50 was 356.5 and 220.3 μg/mL in case of CgNDs and GNDs, respectively. The obtained data approved the seniority of GNDs over CgNDs to be applicable as antiviral and antitumor laborers.