Cytotoxic effect of arsenic trioxide-β-cyclodextrin fly ash-derived carbon nanospheres (As2O3-β-cyclodextrin CNSs)

Abstract

Carbon nanomaterials (CNMs) have demonstrated a potential in the field of drug delivery. As delivery materials, a number of CNMs have shown safety but there is a limited number of studies showing the safety and efficacy of waste-derived nanoparticles. This study was aimed at determining cytotoxicity and efficacy of using coal fly ash-derived β-cyclodextrin nanospheres to deliver arsenic trioxide (As2O3) into breast cancer cells. The carbon nanospheres (CNSs) were synthesised using a chemical vapour deposition method while As2O3 was deposited using the wet impregnation method to form the As2O3-β-cyclodextrin CNSs. The formation of the As2O3-β-cyclodextrin CNSs was confirmed using SEM-EDX. The in vitro cytotoxic effect of As2O3-β-cyclodextrin CNSs against breast cancer MCF-7 cells was assessed using the 3-(4, 5-dimethythiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) Cell Viability Assay, Muse® Count and Viability Assay and microscopy. SEM-EDX analysis confirmed that the As2O3-β-cyclodextrin CNSs were spherically shaped and the As2O3 was successfully deposited. Both the β-cyclodextrin and As2O3-β-cyclodextrin CNSs showed anticancer activity against the MCF-7 cells but not against the non-cancer cells, KMST-6. This study demonstrated that the fly ash-derived CNSs can be used to deliver As2O3 for therapeutic purposes against breast cancer. Most importantly, these nanoparticles induced typical apoptotic characteristics in breast cancer MCF-7 cells.