Nanoplatform based on carbon nanoparticles loaded with doxorubicin enhances apoptosis by generating reactive oxygen species for effective cancer therapy

Oncol Lett. 2024 Apr 30;27(6):288. doi: 10.3892/ol.2024.14421. eCollection 2024 Jun.

Abstract

At present, due to its wide application and relatively low cost, chemotherapy remains a clinically important cancer treatment option; however, a number of chemotherapeutic drugs have important limitations, such as lack of specificity, high toxicity and side effects, and multi-drug resistance. The emergence of nanocarriers has removed numerous clinical application limitations of certain antitumor chemotherapy drugs and has been widely used in the treatment of tumors with nanodrugs. The present study used carbon nanoparticles (CNPs) as a nanocarrier for doxorubicin (DOX) to form the novel nanomedicine delivery system (CNPs@DOX)was demonstrated by UV-vis and fluorescence spectrophotometry, ζ potential and TEM characterization experiments. The results confirmed the successful preparation of CNPs@DOX nanoparticles with a particle size of 96±17 nm, a wide range of absorption and a negatively charged surface. Furthermore, CNPs@DOX produced more reactive oxygen species and induced apoptosis, and thus exhibited higher cytotoxicity than DOX, which is a small molecule anticancer drug without a nanocarrier delivery system.. The present study provides a strategy for the treatment of tumors with nanomedicine.

Keywords: apoptosis; cancer therapy; carbon nanoparticles; doxorubicin; reactive oxygen species.

Grants and funding

The present study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 82104629, 8200410 and 82305034), the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (grant nos. 2021A1515010673 and 2023A1515011078), the Traditional Chinese Medicine Administration Project of Guangdong Province (grant nos. 20231389 and 20221256), the Science and Technology Program of Yangjiang (grant nos. SF2021049, SF2022001, SF2023026 and SF2023027) and the Scientific Research Fund of Yangjiang People's Hospital (grant nos. 2021003, G2021002 and G2021004).