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Chiral Carbon Dots Differentially Regulate Silkworm Antioxidant Defense and Fibroin Assembly for Stronger Silk

delete2026-05-29
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PRE
AI
W
Wenwen Li
W
Wenjing Shi
H
Huiwen Shu
J
Jiahui Dong
T
Tao Hu
黄慧 cover
黄慧 (Hui Huang) *
刘洋 cover
刘洋 (Yang Liu) *
康振辉 cover
康振辉 (Zhenhui Kang) *
张梦玲 cover
张梦玲 (Mengling Zhang) *
DOI:10.1021/acsbiomaterials.6c00343delete
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Abstract

Abstract

En 中文
Chirality-dependent biological effects of nanomaterials in vivo remain poorly understood, particularly in complex physiological systems. Here, we investigate this issue by feeding silkworms with electrosynthesized chiral carbon dots (C-CDs: L-/D-CDs) and investigating their impact on both silkworm physiology and silk properties. Our results demonstrate significant chirality-dependent enhancement in silk mechanical performance. D-CDs increased the Young’s modulus by approximately 47.0% (9904.67 Pa) and the fracture strength by about 83.4% (526.57 MPa), outperforming L-CDs. This improvement correlates with a substantial increase in the β-sheet content (up to 28.8%). Mechanistically, C-CDs markedly enhanced midgut antioxidant defense, with glutathione levels rising by approximately 20.4% in the D-CDs group. Transcriptomic analysis further revealed altered gene expression with significant enrichment in the endoplasmic reticulum protein processing pathway, providing a molecular link between C-CDs treatment and improved silk performance. This work elucidates the in vivo chirality-specific effects of nanomaterials and establishes a novel strategy for performance-directed engineering of silk.
Keywords:
Biomimetic materials
Cadmium sulfide
Carbon nanomaterials
Fibers
Quantum dots
carbon dots
chirality
silkworm
mechanical properties

Journal

A
ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering
IF:
5.5
Papers:
265
Citations:
0

Organization

S
soochow university
Scholars:
1.1W
Papers: 4.2K
Citations: 5
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