Department of Chemistry, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, 2801 S. University Ave, Little Rock, AR 72204, USA.
Department of Biology, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, 2801 S. University Ave, Little Rock, AR 72204, USA.
J Nanosci Nanotechnol. 2021 Dec 1;21(12):6143-6150. doi: 10.1166/jnn.2021.19535.
Ionic liquids are an interesting class of materials that have recently been utilized as chemotherapeutic agents in cancer therapy. Aniline blue, a commonly used biological staining agent, was used as a counter ion to trihexyltetradecylphosphonium, a known cytotoxic cation. A facile, single step ion exchange reaction was performed to synthesize a fluorescent ionic liquid, trihexyltetradecylphosphonium aniline blue. Aqueous nanoparticles of this hydrophobic ionic liquid were prepared using reprecipitationmethod. The newly synthesized ionic liquid and subsequent nanoparticles were characterized using various spectroscopic techniques. Transmission electron microscopy and zeta potential measurements were performed to characterize the nanoparticles' morphology and surface charge. The photophysical properties of the nanoparticles and the parent aniline blue compound were studied using absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy. Cell viability studies were conducted to investigate the cytotoxicity of the newly developed trihexyltetradecylphosphonium aniline blue nanoparticles in human breast epithelial cancer cell line (MCF-7) and its corresponding normal epithelial cell line (MCF-10A) . The results revealed that the synthesized ionic nanomedicines were more cytotoxic (lower IC) than the parent chemotherapeutic compound in MCF-7 cells. Nanoparticles of the synthesized ionic liquid were also shown to be more stable in both aqueous and cellular media and more selective than parent compounds towards cancer cells.
离子液体是一类很有趣的材料，最近已被用于癌症治疗中的化疗药物。苯胺蓝，一种常用的生物染色剂，被用作三己基十四烷基膦阳离子的抗衡离子，该阳离子是已知的细胞毒性阳离子。通过简便的单步离子交换反应，合成了一种荧光离子液体，三己基十四烷基膦苯胺蓝。使用再沉淀法制备了这种疏水性离子液体的水性纳米颗粒。使用各种光谱技术对新合成的离子液体和随后的纳米颗粒进行了表征。通过透射电子显微镜和zeta 电位测量来表征纳米颗粒的形态和表面电荷。使用吸收和荧光光谱研究了纳米颗粒和母体苯胺蓝化合物的光物理性质。通过细胞活力研究，研究了新开发的三己基十四烷基膦苯胺蓝纳米颗粒在人乳腺上皮癌细胞系（MCF-7）及其相应的正常上皮细胞系（MCF-10A）中的细胞毒性。结果表明，与 MCF-7 细胞中的母体化疗化合物相比，合成的离子纳米药物具有更高的细胞毒性（更低的 IC）。还表明，与母体化合物相比，合成的离子液体纳米颗粒在水相和细胞介质中更稳定，对癌细胞更具选择性。
