Meticulously Designed Carbon Dots as Photo-Triggered RNA-Destroyer for Evoking Pyroptosis

Anideal photosensitizer for photodynamic therapy should not onlypossess high reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation efficiency butalso maximize utilization of the in situ produced ROS species, wherethe latter is closely related to its intracellular location. However,rational design of such photosensitizer without tedious conjugationprocedures remains a grand challenge. Here, we report the one-potpreparation of carbon dots (CDs)-based photosensitizer from levofloxacinand neutral red featuring both high O-1(2) quantumyield (& phi;(& UDelta;) = 38.85%) and superior RNA selectivity.Moreover, the & phi;(& UDelta;) value shows a further 40%improvement and reaches 54.33% in response to RNA binding. Owingto these combined attributes, the CDs could exert great damage tothe cellular RNA system (termed the RNA-destroyer) under extremelylow dosage of light irradiation (15 mW cm(-2), 1 min).It induces pyroptotic cell death and causes rapid release of differentcytokines that served as molecular markers in photodynamic immunotherapy.This work represents the meticulously designed CDs with high ROS generationand utilization efficiency via good organization of the photosensitiveand targeting modularity. Moreover, it is the first CDs-based pyroptosisinducer to the best of our knowledge.

Automated summary

In this study, a carbon dots (CDs)-based photosensitizer was prepared through a one-pot method using levofloxacin and neutral red. The CDs showed high reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation efficiency and utilization efficiency for photodynamic therapy. It induced pyroptotic cell death and rapid release of cytokines, making it suitable for photodynamic immunotherapy.