Abstract:
A simple and green approach was developed to produce novel highly fluorescent bovine
serum albumin carbon dots (BCDs) via facile one-step hydrothermal treatment, using bovine serum albu-
min as a precursor carbon source. Inherent blue photoluminescence of the synthesized BCDs provided a
maximum photostability of 90.5 ± 1.2% and was characterized via TEM, FT-IR, XPS, XRD, UV-visible,
and zeta potential analyses. By virtue of their extremely small size, intrinsic optical and photolumi-
nescence properties, superior photostability, and useful non-covalent interactions with the synthetic
oxazolidinone antibiotic linezolid (LNZ), BCDs were investigated as fluorescent nano-biocarriers for
LNZ drug delivery. The release profile of LNZ from the drug delivery system (LNZ–BCDs) revealed a
distinct biphasic release, which is beneficial for mollifying the lethal incidents associated with wound in-
fection. The effective wound healing performance of the developed LNZ–BCDs were evaluated through
various in vitro and ex vivo assays such as MTT, ex vivo hemolysis, in vitro antibacterial activity, in vitro
skin-related enzyme inhibition, and scratch wound healing assays. The examination of LNZ–BCDs as an
efficient wound healing biomaterial illustrated excellent biocompatibility and low cytotoxicity against
normal human skin fibroblast (HSF) cell line, indicating distinct antibacterial activity against the most
common wound infectious pathogens including Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC® 25922) and methicillin-
resistant Staphylococcus aureus, robust anti-elastase, anti-collagenase, and anti-tyrosinase activities, and
enhanced cell proliferation and migration effect. The obtained results confirmed the feasibility of using
the newly designed fluorescent LNZ–BCDs nano-bioconjugate as a unique antibacterial biomaterial
for effective wound healing and tissue regeneration. Besides, the greenly synthesized BCDs could be
considered as a great potential substitute for toxic nanoparticles in biomedical applications due to their
biocompatibility and intense fluorescence characteristics and in pharmaceutical industries as promising
drug delivery nano-biocarriers for effective wound healing applications.
