Fullerenols and Fullerene Alter Cell Growth and Metabolisms of Escherichia coli

Fullerenes are exciting chemicals having great promise in biomedical applications. The toxicity of these nanoparticles on organism's metabolism remains a longstanding challenge in biomedical science. Toward this objective, we explored the interaction of two commonly used fullerene species, nano-C₆₀ and fullerenols, with bacterial cells and their impact on cell growth and metabolism using Escherichia coli under aerobic and anaerobic conditions. Results revealed that fullerenol interactions could promote cell growth and affect cellular metabolism significantly. Here we report potent inhibition of the ethanol generation caused by fullerenols. In comparison, nano-C₆₀ interaction can hardly affect ethanol production and other bacterial activities. Enzyme assay studies suggested that the inhibition of ethanol generation was not due to the gene regulation. These data implicated the application of fullerenols could have considerable impact on cell growth, and enzymatic and metabolic performance of Escherichia coli.