Development and Characterization of Nanodiamond-Doxorubicin (DOX) Conjugates for Enhanced Delivery against Breast Cancer Cells

Abstract

In this work, we have introduced a carbon nanomaterial (nanodiamond), to bind with anticancer drug doxorubicin (DOX) with via amide bond conjugation 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), Particle size, Zeta potential, Drug release, SRB assay against MCF-7 cells, and DNA fragmentation. Spectroscopic analysis confirms the conjugation of nanodiamond with different anticancer drug. AFM photomicrograph represents the surface morphological features of ND-DOX conjugates. In- vitro investigation showed that ND-DOX 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. Above all findings were suggested that the ND-DOX conjugates may be a potential inhibitor of MCF-7 cancer cells to act as a drug candidate. According to all these data it can be confirm that the ND-DOX conjugates could be an effective agent for drug delivery and could be promising in future for tumor targeting strategy.