Hydrothermal synthesis of carbon dots incorporated in magnetite iron oxide nanoparticles for potential targeted brain cancer therapy: In-Vitro study

Surface modification of magnetite (Fe₃O₄) nanoparticles (NPs) using carbon dots (CDs) is a promising approach in biomedical applications due to excellent biocompatibility. Herein, the CDs were incorporated in the Fe₃O₄ NPs to observe the performance of CDs-Fe₃O₄ NPs for targeted brain cancer therapy. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images revealed the morphology of Fe₃O₄ NPs is rough and agglomerated. X-ray diffraction (XRD) diffraction pattern exhibits that the CDs are successfully incorporated in Fe₃O₄ NPs. Furthermore, magnetic properties evaluated using vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) exhibited significant magnetization (51.362 emu/g) attributed to the greater occupancy of Fe⁺² ions in the crystal lattice. XRD pattern confirmed the formation of NPs. Furthermore, functional groups of the NPs were validated through Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The measurement of zeta potential affirmed the stability of the as-prepared Fe₃O₄ NPs, CDs, and CDs-Fe₃O₄ NPs, indicating a value of −7.64 mV, −0.5754 mV and −3.881 mV, respectively. Fe₃O₄ NPs exhibited a surface area of 58.6 m²/g as determined by Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analysis. The anticancer activity of the synthesized CDs-Fe₃O₄ NPs demonstrated inhibition against MG-U87 cells. Therefore, the synthesized CDs-Fe₃O₄ NPs hold potential for application in brain cancer therapy. In addition, CDs-Fe₃O₄ NPs exhibited exceptional biocompatibility and low cytotoxicity against osteoblast cells, establishing them as a safe biomaterial for biomedical applications.