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

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 (H-1 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.