Synthesis of Hexagonal ZnO-PQ7 Nano Disks Conjugated with Folic Acid to Image MCF – 7 Cancer Cells

Abstract

Surface modified ZnO nanomaterial is widely used in the field of bioimaging worldwide due to its optical properties, electronic characteristics and biocompatibility. Fluorescent enhanced, Polyquaternium-7(PQ7) capped, ZnO hexagonal nano disks (ZnO-PQ7) were synthesised by simple wet chemical method. The structural and optical properties of ZnO-PQ7 hexagonal nano disks were characterized using XRD, UV-Visible, Fluorescence, HRTEM, EDAX and FTIR studies. The size of synthesised ZnO-PQ7 were around 30-45 nm as confirmed by HRTEM studies. Fluorescence emission intensity increased with increase in PQ7 concentration. ZnO-PQ7 was further conjugated with folic acid (FA) to target human breast cancer cell line (MCF-7) via EDC/NHS coupling chemistry. Conjugation of folic acid with ZnO-PQ7 was confirmed by FTIR studies. The cell viability study using Methyl thiazolyltetrazolium(MTT) assay has demonstrated that the ZnO-PQ7 conjugated FA composites (ZnO-PQ7-FA) exhibit low toxicity towards MCF-7 up to a concentration of 125 μg/mL. Confocal laser scanning microscopic images confirmed the uptake of ZnO-PQ7-FA nanoparticles by MCF-7 cells. This study reveals ZnO-PQ7-FA nano disks as a potential imaging agent for detection of cancer cells. The synthesis route reported in this article is simple and easy to follow for the synthesis of ZnO-PQ7-FA in bulk quantities with high purity.

Manganese‐doped green tea‐derived carbon quantum dots as a targeted dual imaging and photodynamic therapy platform

“…The spectrum of Mn‐CQDs displayed the peaks with their corresponding vibrations at 3,398 (─OH), 2,930 (C─H), 1,640 (C─O), 1,563 (N─H), and 1,415 (C─O─C) (Sureshkumar, Jothimani, Sridhar, Santhosh, & Venkatachalapathy, ; Wang et al, ). After conjugation of FA and Ce6, a new peak at 1692 cm −1 corresponding to C═O stretching from ─COOH along with 1,516 and 1,483 cm −1 corresponding to the phenyl and pterin rings appeared.…”

Folic acid-conjugated carbon dots as green fluorescent probes based on cellular targeting imaging for recognizing cancer cells

“…41 The FA-CDs showed not only the characteristic peaks of the CDs themselves but also peaks at 1694 cm À1 (C]O), 1606 and 1511 cm À1 (phenyl and pterin rings) indicative of FA, supporting the successful conjugation of FA to the CDs. 45,46 Moreover, the N-H bending vibration peak disappeared from the FTIR spectrum of the CDs. Importantly, the characteristic absorption peak at 1607 cm À1 of the phenyl skeleton in the FA-CDs FTIR spectrum had a wider peak width, which is due to the coupling reaction of amide I.…”

3D imaging of ZnO NP distribution and ROS accumulation in MCF-7 cells and quantification of retention dynamics using laser scanning confocal microscopy

“…In contrast, metal-based nanosystems, including gold, magnetic NPs, are still in the preclinical stage therapeutics ( ). Although there are some investigations focusing on the preliminary evaluation of ZnO toxicity in MCF-7 cell line (Supplementary Table S1 ) (Sadhukhan et al, 2019;;;Sureshkumar, Jothimani, Sridhar, Santhosh, & Venkatachalapathy, 2017;), there are limited data generation focusing on retention dynamics of ZnO particles. One of the major challenges in generating preclinical data is to develop particles that could be used for 3D imaging in live cells for a prolonged period of time (Dias et al, 2019;Ramos-Gomes et al, 2020).…”

“…However, 3D imaging and quantification of particle internalization dynamics for a longer period are not possible if the particle is not optimized for imaging with confocal microscopy. There are few attempts to formulate fluorescent ZnO so that the particle can be monitored through 2D imaging using confocal microscopy ( Sureshkumar et al, 2017;Gupta et al, 2015;Wang et al, 2017;Xia et al, 2008) . A summary of fluorescent ZnO particles that can be used for suppressing breast cancer cell lines are presented in Supplementary Table S1 .…”

“…Ma et al (2015) synthesized fluorescent ZnO quantum dots that shows that the particles are effective in regulating cell proliferation. Sureshkumar et al (2017) synthesized polyquaternium capped zinc oxide nanodisc and used as an anticancer agent against MCF-7 cells. The synthesized NPs were found to be more stable than the commercial dyes, but the internalization dynamics was shown only for a short duration of 6 hours.…”