Synthesis and characterization of nanodiamond-anticancer drug conjugates for tumor targeting

Abstract

Cancer therapy had got a new approach as a nanodiamond-conjugated anticancer drug. In this work, we have introduced a carbon nanomaterial (nanodiamond), to bind with anticancer drug [Usnic Acid (UA), 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) and Curcumin (CUR)] with the help of linker (ADH) for cancer drug delivery and therapy. Nanodiamonds (ND) was initially carboxylated by the surface modification along the treatment with strong alkaline solution (H2SO4:HNO3) and then activated the carboxyl moiety of ND with the addition of EDC. Anticancer drugs were bound to the ND through a succession of chemical modifications by adipic acid dihydrazide (ADH). The ND-Drug conjugate was analyzed by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (1H NMR) Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy and Mass Spectroscopy (MS), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Particle size, Zeta potential, Drug release, SRB assay against MCF-7 and Hep-G2 cells, Molecular docking, Pharmacophore mapping and DNA fragmentation. Spectroscopic analysis confirms the conjugation of nanodiamond with different anticancer drug. AFM and SEM photomicrograph represents the surface morphological features of ND-Drug conjugates. In- vitro investigation showed that ND-Drug conjugates have slow and sustained drug release characteristics. In-vitro cytotoxicity studies, an enormous cytotoxic potential of ND-Drug conjugates were showed against cancer cell line. Docking and pharmacophore mapping analysis were also suggested that the ND-Drug conjugates possess effective interaction with significant proteins and pharmacophore mapping was suggested that ND-Drug conjugates were specifically matched with hypo 1 model with good fit value. Above all findings were suggested that the ND-Drug conjugates may be a potential inhibitor of MCF-7 and Hep-G2 cancer cells to act as a drug candidate. According to all these data it can be confirm that the ND-Drug conjugates could be an effective agent for drug delivery and could be promising in future for tumor targeting strategy.