Normal breast epithelial MCF-10A cells to evaluate the safety of carbon dots

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2021

Authors

Nuno Vale (Author) FMUP; Silva, S (Author) Other; Duarte, D (Author) Other; Crista, DMA (Author) Other; da Silva, LP (Author) FCUP; Joaquim C G E Esteves da Silva (Author) FCUP

Journal

Title: RSC Medicinal Chemistry

Vol. 12

Pages: 245-253

Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 22 Citations

Scopus - 24 Citations

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-00T-820

DOI: 10.1039/d0md00317d

Abstract (EN): The human normal breast cell line MCF-10A is being widely used as a model in toxicity studies due to its structural similarity to the normal human mammary epithelium. Over the years, application of carbon dots (C-dots) in biomedicine has been increasing due to their photoluminescence properties, biocompatibility, biosafety and possible applications in bioimaging and as drug carriers. In this work we prepared three different C-dots from the same set of carbon and nitrogen precursors (citric acid and urea, respectively) via three distinct bottom-up synthetic routes and their safety was tested against the normal breast cell line MCF-10A. The characterization results demonstrated a similar size range and composition for all the C-dots. The MCF-10A cells were treated with different concentrations of C-dots for 24, 48 and 72 h to evaluate the cell viability over time. For the 24 h incubation, there were no significant decreases in the viability of the MCF-10A cells. For the 48 h treatment, there was a significant decrease in the viability of the cells treated with calcination-based C-dots, but without significant cellular viability changes for microwave and hydrothermal-based C-dots. For 72 h, cells treated with hydrothermal-based C-dots have the most promising viability profile. Also, compared with paclitaxel, these C-dots have a safety profile very close to that of an antineoplastic in non-tumor cells. Our results suggest that these new C-dots have potential as imaging candidates or biosensing tools as well as drug carriers, and further investigation in animal models is needed for future application in medicine.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 9