A Novel Quantum Dots-Based Fluorescent Sensor for Determination of the Anticancer Dacomitinib: Application to Dosage Forms

Abstract

One of the most promising drugs recently approved for the treatment of various types of cancer is dacomitinib, which belongs to the tyrosine kinase inhibitor class. The US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) has recently approved dacomitinib as a first-line treatment for patients suffering from non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations. The current study proposes the design of a novel spectrofluorimetric method for determining dacomitinib based on newly synthesized nitrogen-doped carbon quantum dots (N-CQDs) as fluorescent probes. The proposed method is simple and does not require pretreatment or preliminary procedures. Since the studied drug does not have any fluorescent properties, the importance of the current study is magnified. When excited at 325 nm, N-CQDs exhibited native fluorescence at 417 nm, which was quantitatively and selectively quenched by the increasing concentrations of dacomitinib. The developed method involved the simple and green microwave-assisted synthesis of N-CQDs, using orange juice as a carbon source and urea as a nitrogen source. The characterization of the prepared quantum dots was performed using different spectroscopic and microscopic techniques. The synthesized dots had consistently spherical shapes and a narrow size distribution and demonstrated optimal characteristics, including a high stability and a high fluorescence quantum yield (25.3%). When assessing the effectiveness of the proposed method, several optimization factors were considered. The experiments demonstrated highly linear quenching behavior across the concentration range of 1.0−20.0 μg/mL with a correlation coefficient (r) of 0.999. The recovery percentages were found to be in the range of 98.50–100.83% and the corresponding relative standard deviation (%RSD) was 0.984. The proposed method was shown to be highly sensitive with a limit of detection (LOD) as low as 0.11 μg/mL. The type of mechanism by which quenching took place was also investigated by different means and was found to be static with a complementary inner filter effect. For quality purposes, the assessment of the validation criteria adhered to the ICHQ2(R1) recommendations. Finally, the proposed method was applied to a pharmaceutical dosage form of the drug (Vizimpro® Tablets) and the obtained results were satisfactory. Considering the eco-friendly aspect of the suggested methodology, using natural materials to synthesize N-CQDs and water as a diluting solvent added to its greenness profile.

White sustainable luminescent determination of nifuroxazide using nitrogen–sulphur co-doped carbon quantum dots nanosensor in bulk and various pharmaceutical matrices

“…As these values exceeded the maximum diffusion rate constant (2.0 × 10 10 L mol −1 s −1 ) by a signicant amount, 43 as a result, it was concluded that, static quenching mechanism was found to be responsible for the NSC-dots uorescence intensity quenching in presence of the studied drug. 43,44 For further investigation of the possible quenching mechanism between the synthesized NSC-dots and NFX the inner lter effect was studied. The inner lter effect, previously thought to be an analytical error, has recently begun to establish itself in the eld of analysis as a substantial quenching mechanism involving an energy conversion unrelated to radiation.…”

“…The quenching mechanism can generally be divided into a variety of categories, including dynamic quenching, static quenching, and the inner lter effect (IFE). 43,44 Fluorophore and quencher molecular interaction may cause static or dynamic quenching. The quencher in dynamic quenching diffuses to the uorophore at the excited state.…”

“…The quenching mechanism can generally be divided into a variety of categories, including dynamic quenching, static quenching, and the inner filter effect (IFE). 43,44…”

Green Synthesis of Sulfur- and Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Quantum Dots for Determination of L-DOPA Using Fluorescence Spectroscopy and a Smartphone-Based Fluorimeter

“…As a result, they are ideal candidates for sensing applications . Also, CQDs can determine non-fluorescent drugs by fluorescence quenching, which is a great advantage for sensing drugs . CQDs have been utilized in numerous fields, such as nanosensing, bioimaging, catalysis, and optoelectronic uses.…”

Sulfur and nitrogen co-doped carbon quantum dots as fluorescent probes for the determination of some pharmaceutically-important nitro compounds

“…The introduction of heteroatoms, such as boron (B), sulfur (S), nitrogen (N), and phosphorous (P) into the overall structure-of-CQDs, with or without surface changes, is known as doping. Doping CQDs increases their quantum yields and improves their fluorescence qualities, allowing them to be used in various applications [45][46][47][48][49][50][51] . Because nitrogen has an atomic radius similar to that of carbon, and sulfur and carbon have similar electronegativity, SN-CQDs represent one of the most important doped-CQDs 52 .…”