Khajuria Akhil, Alajangi Hema K, Sharma Akanksha, Kaur Harinder, Sharma Prakriti, Negi Sushmita, Kumari Laxmi, Trivedi Manisha, Yadav Ashok Kumar, Kumar Robin, Raghuvanshi Rajeev Singh, Kaur Indu Pal, Tyagi Rajeev K, Jaiswal Pradeep Kumar, Lim Yong-Beom, Barnwal Ravi Pratap, Singh Gurpal
University Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Panjab University, Chandigarh, 160014, India.
Department of Biophysics, Panjab University, Chandigarh, 160014, India.
Discov Nano. 2024 Sep 10;19(1):145. doi: 10.1186/s11671-024-04095-5.
Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of death among women globally, making its diagnosis and treatment challenging. The use of nanotechnology for cancer diagnosis and treatment is an emerging area of research. To address this issue, multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were ligand exchanged with butyric acid (BA) to gain hydrophilic character. The successful functionalization was confirmed by FTIR spectroscopy. Surface morphology changes were observed using SEM, while TEM confirmed the structural integrity of the MWCNTs after functionalization. Particle size, zeta potential, and UV spectroscopy were also performed to further characterize the nanoparticles. The breast cancer aptamer specific to Mucin-1 (MUC-1) was then conjugated with the functionalized MWCNTs. These MWCNTs successfully targeted breast cancer cells (MDA-MB-231) as examined by cellular uptake studies and exhibited a reduction in cancer-induced inflammation, as evidenced by gene transcription (qPCR) and protein expression (immunoblotting) levels. Immunoblot and confocal-based immunofluorescence assay (IFA) indicated the ability of CNTs to induce photothermal cell death of MDA-MB-231 cells. Upon imaging, cancer cells were effectively visualized due to the MWCNTs' ability to act as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents. Additionally, MWCNTs demonstrated photothermal capabilities to eliminate bound cancer cells. Collectively, our findings pave the way for developing aptamer-labeled MWCNTs as viable "theranostic alternatives" for breast cancer treatment.
乳腺癌是全球女性主要死因之一，其诊断和治疗颇具挑战性。利用纳米技术进行癌症诊断和治疗是一个新兴的研究领域。为解决这一问题，多壁碳纳米管（MWCNTs）与丁酸（BA）进行配体交换以获得亲水性。通过傅里叶变换红外光谱（FTIR）证实了成功的功能化。使用扫描电子显微镜（SEM）观察表面形态变化，而透射电子显微镜（TEM）证实了功能化后MWCNTs的结构完整性。还进行了粒度、zeta电位和紫外光谱分析以进一步表征纳米颗粒。然后将对粘蛋白-1（MUC-1）特异的乳腺癌适配体与功能化的MWCNTs偶联。通过细胞摄取研究检测发现，这些MWCNTs成功靶向乳腺癌细胞（MDA-MB-231），并且如基因转录（qPCR）和蛋白质表达（免疫印迹）水平所证明的，显示出癌症诱导的炎症有所减轻。免疫印迹和基于共聚焦的免疫荧光分析（IFA）表明CNTs能够诱导MDA-MB-231细胞发生光热细胞死亡。成像时，由于MWCNTs具有作为磁共振成像（MRI）造影剂的能力，癌细胞能够被有效可视化。此外，MWCNTs表现出光热能力以消除结合的癌细胞。总体而言，我们的研究结果为开发适配体标记的MWCNTs作为乳腺癌治疗可行的“诊疗替代方案”铺平了道路。
