Compatibilità biologica e immunitaria dei carbon nanodots: studio pilota su cellule immunitarie primarie umane

Since the discovery of nanomaterials, they have been seen as potential resources for a wide range of biomedical applications. The unique properties exhibited by nanomaterials can be exploited for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes and combined to create versatile nanoplatforms with multiple functionalities. Upon intravenous injection, the nanomaterials tend to quickly trigger an immune response since immune cells serve as the primary line of defense in the human body. Consequently, it becomes imperative to comprehensively investigate the impact of nanomaterials on the intricate dynamics of the immune system. CNDs (Carbon nanodots) present a novel alternative to semiconductor-based quantum dots (QDs). CNDs offer several including their superior biological properties, high solubility in water, chemical inertness, ease of functionalization, and resistance to photobleaching. These features make CNDs up-and-coming tools for biomedical applications. Furthermore, CNDs exhibit luminescence properties and can be easily functionalized, further enhancing their utility. This thesis aims to determine how two different functionalized CNDs, BODIPY- doped CNDs (BCNDs) and nitrogen-doped carbon nanodots (NCNDs), affect immune cells. CNDs identified by several flow cytometry methods due to their intrinsic fluorescence characteristics. A variety of cell viability and activation experiments have been performed. Furthermore, an ELISA experiment was carried out to analyze the cytokines to better understand the immunological interaction of these nanomaterials with cells. The results showed that CNDs are high biocompatibility and are internalized in a concentration-dependent manner in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), particularly for BCNDs, with an even more evident effect when considering the monocyte subpopulation.