Potential Efficacy of Herbal Medicine-Derived Carbon Dots in the Treatment of Diseases: From Mechanism to Clinic

Mingtang Zeng,1 Yao Wang,1 Maozhu Liu,1 Yuxun Wei,2 Jie Wen,3 Yuchen Zhang,1 Tao Chen,4 Nianyu He,1 Ping Fan,1 Xinhua Dai5 1Department of Pharmacy, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Pharmacy, Zhongjiang County People’s Hospital, Deyang, 618000, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Pharmacy, Shehong Municipal Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shehong, 629600, People’s Republic of China; 4Key Laboratory of Medical Electrophysiology, Ministry of Education, School of Pharmacy of Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, 646000, People’s Republic of China; 5Department of Laboratory Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Xinhua Dai, Department of Laboratory Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, People’s Republic of China, Email dxh9123@163.com Ping Fan, Department of Pharmacy, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, People’s Republic of China, Email m13980602288@163.comAbstract: Carbon dots (CDs), a crucial component of nanomaterials, are zero-dimensional nanomaterials with carbon as the backbone structure and smaller than 10 nm. Due to their beneficial characteristics, they are widely used in biomedical fields such as biosensors, drug delivery, bio-imaging, and interactions with DNA. Interestingly, a novel type of carbon dot, generated by using herbal medicines as synthetic raw materials, has emerged as the most recent incomer in the family of CDs with the extensive growth in the number of materials selected for carbon dots synthesis. Herbal medicine-derived carbon dots (HM-CDs) have been employed in the biomedical industry, and are rapidly emerging as “modern nanomaterials” due to their unique structures and exceptional capabilities. Emerging trends suggest that their specific properties can be used in bleeding disorders, gastrointestinal disorders, inflammation-related diseases, and other common intractable diseases including cancer, menopausal syndrome, central nervous system disorders, and pain of various forms and causes. In addition, HM-CDs have been found to have organ-protective and antioxidant properties, as evidenced by extensive studies. This research provides a more comprehensive understanding of the biomedical applications of HM-CDs for the aforementioned disorders and investigates the intrinsic pharmacological activities and mechanisms of these HM-CDs to further advance their clinical applications. Keywords: herbal medicine, carbon dots, disease treatment, nanomaterials, potential mechanism