Recent Developments in Heteroatom/Metal-Doped Carbon Dot-Based Image-Guided Photodynamic Therapy for Cancer

Carbon nanodots (CNDs) are advanced nanomaterials with a size of 2–10 nm and are considered zero-dimensional carbonaceous materials. CNDs have received great attention in the area of cancer theranostics. The majority of review articles have shown the improvement of CNDs for use in cancer therapy and bioimaging applications. However, there is a minimal number of consolidated studies on the currently developed doped CNDs that are used in various ways in cancer therapies. Hence, in this review, we discuss the current developments in different types of heteroatom elements/metal ion-doped CNDs along with their preparations, physicochemical and biological properties, multimodal-imaging, and emerging applications in image-guided photodynamic therapies for cancer

Exogenous expression of ACC deaminase gene in psychrotolerant bacteria alleviates chilling stress and promotes plant growth in millets under chilling conditions

463-468Endogeneous ethylene evolved during cold stress is a major limiting factor for plant growth which can be controlled by bacterial enzyme 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate (ACC) deaminase (ACCD), by breaking down ACC, the precursor of ethylene. In the present study, we introduced ACCD expressing plasmid in ACCD negative psychrotolerant bacteria to study its effect on growth of finger and foxtail millet seedlings. ACCD negative Sphingomonas faeni ISO were selected and transformed with plasmid pRKACC containing the acdS gene. Inoculation of the millet seeds and studying physiological parameters when a cold stress of 4 and 10ºC was imposed showed that inoculation with ACCD expressing strains improved root and shoot length, biomass content of foxtail and finger millets seeds. Further, we also observed increased antioxidant activity in the plants by high levels of SOD, CAT, GPX, POD, APX and GR enzyme activity, and decreased proline content on inoculation with ACCD positive mutants. The enzyme ACC deaminase is thus be proved to be a potential strategy to alleviate cold stress in foxtail and finger millet by regulating endogenous ethylene evolved during stress conditions