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Carbon–semiconductor hybrid quantum dots are classical carbon dots with core carbon nanoparticles doped with a selected nanoscale semiconductor. Specifically, on those with the nanoscale TiO2 doping, denoted as CTiO2-Dots, their synthesis and thorough characterization were reported previously. In this work, the CTiO2-Dots were evaluated for their visible light-activated antibacterial function, with the results showing the effective killing of not only Gram-positive but also the generally more resistant Gram-negative bacteria. The hybrid dots are clearly more potent antibacterial agents than their neat carbon dot counterparts. Mechanistically, the higher antibacterial performance of the CTiO2-Dots is attributed to their superior photoexcited state properties, which are reflected by the observed much brighter fluorescence emissions. Also considered and discussed is the possibility of additional contributions to the antibacterial activities due to the photosensitization of the nanoscale TiO2 by its doped core carbon nanoparticles. 

Metabolic acidosis (MA) is a highly prevalent disorder in a significant proportion of the population, resulting from imbalance in blood pH homeostasis. The heart, being an organ with very low regenerative capacity and high metabolic activity, is vulnerable to chronic, although low-grade, MA. To systematically characterize the effect of low-grade MA on the heart, we treated male and female mice with NH4Cl supplementation for 2 weeks and analyzed their blood chemistry and transcriptomic signature of the heart tissue. The reduction of pH and plasma bicarbonate levels without an associated change in anion gap indicated a physiological manifestation of low-grade MA with minimal respiratory compensation. On transcriptomic analysis, we observed changes in cardiac-specific genes with significant gender-based differences due to MA. We found many genes contributing to dilated cardiomyopathy to be altered in males, more than in females, while cardiac contractility and Na/K/ATPase-Src signaling were affected in the opposite way. Our model presents a systems-level understanding of how the cardiovascular tissue is affected by MA. As low-grade MA is a common ailment with many dietary and pharmaceutical interventions, our work presents avenues to limit chronic cardiac damage and disease manifestation, as well as highlighting the sex differences in MA-induced cardiovascular damage.