Haemostatic bioactivity of novel Schizonepetae Spica Carbonisata-derived carbon dots via platelet counts elevation

Schizonepetae Spica Carbonisata (SSC) has pronounced haemostatic effects for hundreds of years and has been acknowledged in the 2015 Pharmacopoeia of the People's Republic of China (PPRC) as a haemostatic charcoal drug. However, after years of efforts, the underlying mechanism and the material basis is still less defined. In this research, we developed a novel CDs derived from SSC (SSC-CDs) with an average diameter of 1.29-6.87 nm and a quantum yield of 6.31%. SSC was prepared using a modified pyrolysis method and no further modification and external surface passivation agent is required. With abundant surface groups, SSC-CDs showed distinct solubility and bioactivity. In this study, we innovatively used the Deinagkistrodon acutus (D. acutus) venom model as well as the classical haemorrhagic animal model to evaluate the haemostatic bioactivity of SSC-CDs. The results indicated that SSC-CDs had outstanding haemostatic bioactivity and might inhibit the haemorrhagic activity via PLT elevation. According to the results of this study and our previous work, we discovered that CDs derived from different kinds of charcoal drugs presented similarities and differences in the structural feature, physicochemical property and bioactivity. In order to further explore the self-bioactivities, we first named this kind of CDs as "Chinese Medicine charcoal drug nanoparticles" (CMNP). These results may not only provide evidence for further researches of self-bioactivities of CDs but give new insights into potential biomedical and healthcare applications of CDs, therefore, make contributions to future drug discovery.