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Rapid Microwave-Assisted Synthesis of pH-Sensitive Carbon-Based Nanoparticles for the Controlled Release of Doxorubicin to Cancer Cells

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Abstract

Carbon-based nanoparticles (CNPs) are a new type of interesting nanomaterials applied in various pharmaceutical fields due to their outstanding biocompatible properties. Novel pH-sensitive CNPs were rapidly synthesized within 1 min by microwave-assisted technique for doxorubicin (DOX) delivery into five cancer cell lines, including breast cancer (BT-474 and MDA-MB-231 cell lines), colon cancer (HCT and HT29 cell lines), and cervical cancer (HeLa cell lines). CNPs and DOX-loaded CNPs (CNPs-DOX) had nano-size of 11.66 ± 2.32 nm and 43.24 ± 13.25 nm, respectively. DOX could be self-assembled with CNPs in phosphate buffer solution at pH 7.4 through electrostatic interaction, exhibiting high loading efficiency at 85.82%. The release of DOX from CNPs-DOX at pH 5.0, often observed in the tumor, was nearly two times greater than the release at physiological condition pH 7.4. Furthermore, the anticancer activity of CNPs-DOX was significantly enhanced compared to free DOX in five cancer cell lines. CNPs-DOX could induce cell death through apoptosis induction in MDA-MB-231 cells. The findings revealed that CNPs-DOX exhibited a promising pH-sensitive nano-system as a drug delivery carrier for cancer treatment.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Paul Mines for English proofreading.

Funding

This research was funded by the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT): N42A650551 and the Office of the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation (OPS MHESI), Thailand Science Research and Innovation (TSRI) (Grant No. RGNS 65-195), as well as the Ph.D. Student Scholarship provided by the Faculty of Pharmacy, Silpakorn University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pharmaceutical Development of Green Innovations Group (PDGIG), Faculty of Pharmacy, Silpakorn University, Nakhon Pathom, 73000, Thailand

    Koranat Dechsri, Tanasait Ngawhirunpat, Theerasak Rojanarata & Praneet Opanasopit

  2. Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Silpakorn University, Nakhon Pathom, 73000, Thailand

    Cheewita Suwanchawalit

  3. Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Science, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, 40000, Thailand

    Padungkwan Chitropas

  4. Department of Biomedicine and Health Informatics, Green Innovations Group (PDGIG), Faculty of Pharmacy, Silpakorn University, Nakhon Pathom, 73000, Thailand

    Supusson Pengnam

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  1. Koranat Dechsri
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Contributions

Koranat Dechsri: investigation, methodology, writing—original draft; Cheewita Suwanchawalit: writing—review and editing, methodology; Padungkwan Chitropas: writing—review and editing; Tanasait Ngawhirunpat: writing—review and editing; Theerasak Rojanarata: methodology; Praneet Opanasopit: conceptualization, resources, funding acquisition; Supusson Pengnam: supervision, conceptualization, funding acquisition.

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Highlights

• Novel pH-sensitive carbon-based nanoparticles were rapidly synthesized by using microwave irradiation and were non-toxic to cancer cell lines.

• The release of DOX was pH-dependent, which released significantly in an acidic tumor environment (pH 5.0), while the release was lower at physiological condition pH 7.4 at 24 h.

• The CNPs-DOX significantly enhanced the cytotoxicity of DOX in many cancer cell lines and induced apoptosis in MDA-MB-231 cells.

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Dechsri, K., Suwanchawalit, C., Chitropas, P. et al. Rapid Microwave-Assisted Synthesis of pH-Sensitive Carbon-Based Nanoparticles for the Controlled Release of Doxorubicin to Cancer Cells. AAPS PharmSciTech 24, 135 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1208/s12249-023-02593-w

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