Carbon dots-assisted degradation of some common biogenic amines: An in vitro study

Abstract In this work, the reduction/degradation capability of carbon dots (CDs) on biogenic amines (BAs) produced by Enterococcus faecalis and Escherichia coli was investigated in vitro conditions. In this work, the response surface methodology (RSM) and the central composite design (CCD) was applied in order to find the optimized CDs concentration and incubation time on the reduction of BAs. CDs represented a quite high degradation percentage on cadaverine, followed by histamine, tyramine and putrescine. Cadaverine produced by E. coli was completely degraded, while CDs degraded only 55% of putrescine produced by E. faecalis. Based on RSM outputs, both independent variables (concentration of CDs and the incubation time), affected the reduction/degradation of BAs in the two investigated pathogens. The results revealed that the concentration of CDs had the major influence on BAs degradation. The antimicrobial and FTIR investigations implied that CDs degraded only BAs of E. faecalis and have no activity on the production of BAs by the bacterium, In the case of BAs of E. coli, CDs not only inhibited the E. coli growth and reduced BA accumulation but also degraded the as-formed BAs. These data serve to reinforce a conclusion that CDs represent a potential material for BAs degradation.