Cyclodextrin modified with different groups to enhance the drug delivery efficiency of gold nanoparticles to treat cancer

The aim of this research is to investigate the influence of different functional groups of β-cyclodextrin (CD) in functionalizing gold nanoparticles. The functionalized nanoparticles are then utilized for loading the 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) drug and evaluating their in vitro anticancer activity. For this purpose, a two-step method was employed to synthesize Mono-6-(1,3-trimethylenediamine)-6-deoxy-β-cyclodextrin (TMACD), which was further utilized for fabricating gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) using ultrasound-assisted synthesis. The loading of 5-FU was compared among three cyclodextrin derivative, namely β-cyclodextrin ([email protected]/CD), [email protected]/CD, 2-hydroxylpropyl-β-cyclodextrin ([email protected]/HPCD), and TMACD ([email protected]/TMACD). Among them, the nanocomposite AuNPs/TMACD exhibited the highest associate efficiency and loading efficiency which were confirmed by analytic techniques such as FTIR, PXRD, TEM. Moreover, the release behavior of 5-FU from the nanocomposites was investigated at pH 7.4, revealing that all AuNPs/CDs nanocomposites effectively protected the drug with a low release percentage ranging from 23.13% to 29.45%. Docking model analysis indicated that the 5-FU ligand formed six hydrogen bonds and interacted favorably with the HPCD molecule. In the in vitro cell viability assay, both nanocomposites, [email protected]/CD and [email protected]/TMACD, not only demonstrated effective anticancer activity against breast cancer cells (MCF-7) but also exhibited minimal toxicity towards normal cell lines. Remarkably, the results revealed that [email protected]/TMACD displayed the highest efficacy in suppressing the growth of the breast cancer cells. These findings highlight the considerable potential of amine-derivative cyclodextrin-capped AuNPs as exceptionally efficient carriers for anticancer drugs, offering promising applications in both diagnosis and therapy.