Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41799209›Full record

ReviewTheranostics2026

Carbon dots penetrating the blood-brain barrier for central nervous system nanomedicine.

Wubshet Mekonnen Girma, Girum Getachew Demissie, Shewaye Lakew Mekuria, Shamsa Kizhepat, T M Subrahmanya, Akash S Rasal, Binyam Abdu Berhe, Gangaraju Gedda, Yoo-Jin Park, Jia-Yaw Chang and 1 more

Abstract readReview
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in Theranostics, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Review
  2. Article
  3. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

11 authors.

Wubshet Mekonnen GirmaDepartment of Animal Science & Technology and BET Research Institute, Chung-Ang University, Anseong, Gyeonggi-do 17546, Republic of Korea.
Girum Getachew DemissieNanochemistry Laboratory Center, Department of Chemical Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei 106335, Taiwan.
Shewaye Lakew MekuriaDepartment of Chemistry, College of Natural and Computational Sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar 196, Ethiopia.
Shamsa KizhepatNanochemistry Laboratory Center, Department of Chemical Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei 106335, Taiwan.
T M SubrahmanyaAdvanced Membrane Materials Research Centre, Graduate Institute of Applied Science and Technology, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei 106335, Taiwan.
Akash S RasalDepartment of Chemical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei 106319, Taiwan.
Binyam Abdu BerheDepartment of Chemistry, College of Natural Science, Wollo University, P.O. Box 1145, Dessie 1000, Ethiopia.
Gangaraju GeddaDepartment of Animal Science & Technology and BET Research Institute, Chung-Ang University, Anseong, Gyeonggi-do 17546, Republic of Korea.
Yoo-Jin ParkDepartment of Animal Science & Technology and BET Research Institute, Chung-Ang University, Anseong, Gyeonggi-do 17546, Republic of Korea.
Jia-Yaw ChangNanochemistry Laboratory Center, Department of Chemical Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei 106335, Taiwan.
Myung-Geol PangDepartment of Animal Science & Technology and BET Research Institute, Chung-Ang University, Anseong, Gyeonggi-do 17546, Republic of Korea.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Central nervous system (CNS) diseases are challenging to treat because of the blood-brain barrier (BBB), formed by tight junctions that limit the transcellular transport of therapeutic drugs. Carbon dots (CDs) have emerged as versatile nanotheranostic platforms for the targeting, diagnosis, and treatment of CNS diseases owing to their ultrasmall size, intrinsic photoluminescence, tunable surface chemistry, and biocompatibility. Surface modifications of CDs with targeting ligands, polymer coatings, biomimetic membranes, and exosome-like molecules enable BBB penetration and selective brain accumulation. CDs also support multimodal imaging techniques, such as fluorescence, magnetic resonance, and photoacoustic imaging, for early disease detection and real-time therapeutic monitoring. In addition, their ability to deliver drugs, genes, and therapeutic agents, combined with their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, photothermal, photodynamic, and sonodynamic properties, highlights their potential for the integrated diagnosis and treatment of CNS diseases. This review systematically summarizes the background of CDs, the design of BBB-penetrating CDs, and their applications in tumor diagnosis, treatment, and imaging-guided cooperative therapies for CNS diseases. Finally, current obstacles and future perspectives are discussed. This review provides a valuable reference for the rational design of BBB-penetrating CDs for the precise treatment of neurological disorders and brain cancers.

Indexed as

Blood-Brain BarrierCarbon Quantum DotsCentral Nervous SystemCentral Nervous System DiseasesNanomedicineAnimalsCarbonDrug Delivery SystemsHumansTheranostic NanomedicineCarbonblood-brain barriercarbon dotscentral nervous systemimagingtherapy

Identifiers

PMID41799209
PMCPMC12964387

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.