Abstract
The proficient and targeted delivery (TD) of therapeutic drugs is a significant challenge in the clinical healing of cancer. In this study, highly luminescent carbon quantum dots (CQDs) were synthesized via citric acid carbonization and modified by transferrin (TF) to improve the water-solubility and increase the interaction ability with target cell receptors. The CQDs based nanocarrier was developed for the imaging and the TD of doxorubicin (Dox) as a model of anti-breast cancer drug. The physicochemical properties of Dox-loaded TF-CQDs were characterized using TEM, UV–Vis and FT-IR spectrophotometry, and fluorescence spectroscopy. The cytotoxicity potentiality of the nanocarrier was investigated by the MTT test across MCF-7 cell lines which exhibited more decrease in cell viability than TF-CQDs or Dox alone. The efficiency of the in vitro release was investigated in the optimum conditions of pH and the release time. The cellular uptake study revealed that TF-CQDs was more efficiently endocytosed by the MCF-7 cells than Dox. The Dox-TF conjugate was more toxic than Dox due to its overcome on multidrug resistance of cancer cells. Furthermore, the binding energy between Dox and TF-CQDs were investigated employing the molecular docking (Mdoc) approach. It was shown that Dox-TF-CQDs nano-carrier can be an excellent TD system for the therapy of breast cancer.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.