Hydrothermal synthesis of carbon dots incorporated in magnetite iron oxide nanoparticles for potential targeted brain cancer therapy: In-Vitro study
Zahida Yaqoob, Syeda Ammara Batool, Muhammad Abdul Basit, Kiran Konain, Rizwan Ahmed Malik, Saeed Ur Rehman, Syed Wilayat Hussain, Hussein Alrobei, Muhammad Atiq Ur Rehman
Abstract
Surface modification of magnetite (Fe 3 O 4 ) nanoparticles (NPs) using carbon dots (CDs) is a promising approach in biomedical applications due to excellent biocompatibility . Herein, the CDs were incorporated in the Fe 3 O 4 NPs to observe the performance of CDs-Fe 3 O 4 NPs for targeted brain cancer therapy. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images revealed the morphology of Fe 3 O 4 NPs is rough and agglomerated. X-ray diffraction (XRD) diffraction pattern exhibits that the CDs are successfully incorporated in Fe 3 O 4 NPs. Furthermore, magnetic properties evaluated using vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) exhibited significant magnetization (51.362 emu/g) attributed to the greater occupancy of Fe +2 ions in the crystal lattice . XRD pattern confirmed the formation of NPs. Furthermore, functional groups of the NPs were validated through Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The measurement of zeta potential affirmed the stability of the as-prepared Fe 3 O 4 NPs, CDs, and CDs-Fe 3 O 4 NPs, indicating a value of −7.64 mV, −0.5754 mV and −3.881 mV, respectively. Fe 3 O 4 NPs exhibited a surface area of 58.6 m 2 /g as determined by Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analysis. The anticancer activity of the synthesized CDs-Fe 3 O 4 NPs demonstrated inhibition against MG-U87 cells. Therefore, the synthesized CDs-Fe 3 O 4 NPs hold potential for application in brain cancer therapy. In addition, CDs-Fe 3 O 4 NPs exhibited exceptional biocompatibility and low cytotoxicity against osteoblast cells, establishing them as a safe biomaterial for biomedical applications.