article · RSC Advances
Researchers have developed a rapid microwave-assisted method to synthesise nitrogen-doped carbon quantum dots using orange juice and urea in under ten minutes. The resulting nanoparticles are spherical, measure between two and five nanometres, and exhibit stable fluorescence with a quantum yield of 29.3 percent. These quantum dots serve as nanosensors to measure the cancer medication palbociclib without requiring pre-derivatisation steps. Palbociclib quenches the native fluorescence of the quantum dots through a static quenching mechanism. The method demonstrated a linear detection range between 1.0 and 20.0 micrograms per millilitre, with a detection limit of 0.021 micrograms per millilitre. The nanosensors showed high selectivity and were successfully used to quantify palbociclib in commercial tablets. Due to their low cytotoxicity and good biocompatibility, the dots were also successfully applied to cellular imaging and selective drug probing in living cancer cells.
Palbociclib is a key therapeutic agent used in cancer treatment. Producing affordable nanosensors from everyday materials like orange juice offers an economical, rapid alternative for quality control in pharmaceutical tablets. Furthermore, because these nanoparticles are non-toxic to living cells, they provide researchers with an effective tool for bioimaging and monitoring cancer drug behaviour at the cellular level.
This technology has potential applications in pharmaceutical quality testing and biomedical research. Quality control laboratories could use the method to analyse palbociclib tablets without complex sample preparations, while academic and oncology labs could employ it for cellular imaging. As the assay is validated for pharmaceutical tablets and demonstrated in cell cultures, the sensing approach appears applied and tested in laboratory conditions, though clinical translation remains early-stage.
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The current study introduces a spectrofluorimetric methodology for the assessment of palbociclib without the need for any pre-derivatization steps for the first time. This approach relied on the palbociclib quenching effect on the native fluorescence of newly synthesized nitrogen-doped carbon quantum dots (N-CQDs). An innovative, facile, and rapid microwave-assisted pyrolysis procedure was applied for the synthesis of N-CQDs using available and economic starting materials (the carbon source is orange juice and the nitrogen source is urea) in less than 10 minutes. Full characterization of the prepared QDs was carried out using various techniques. The prepared N-CQDs exhibited good fluorescence emission at 417 nm after excitation at 325 nm with stable fluorescence intensity and good quantum yield (29.3%). They showed spherical shapes and narrow size distribution with a particle size of around 2-5 nm. Different experimental variables influencing fluorescence quenching were examined and optimized. A good linear correlation was exhibited alongside the range of 1.0 to 20.0 μg mL<sup>-1</sup> with a correlation coefficient of 0.9997 and a detection limit of 0.021 μg mL<sup>-1</sup>. The proposed methodology showed good selectivity allowing its efficient application in tablets with high percentage recoveries and low percentage RSD values. The mechanism of quenching was proved to be static by applying the Stern-Volmer equation at four different temperatures. The method was validated in accordance with ICHQ2 (R1) recommendations. Intriguingly, N-CQDs demonstrated good biocompatibility and low cytotoxicity, which permitted cellular imaging and palbociclib detection in living cancer cells. Therefore, the proposed method may have potential applications in cancer therapy and related mechanism research.
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DOI: 10.1039/d2ra05759j
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