Shen Lee, Zhang Hue

ABSTRACT

Cancer continues to be one of the leading causes of mortality worldwide, with conventional chemotherapy often resulting in severe side effects that compromise patient quality of life. In recent years, nanoparticle-based approaches have gained attention for their potential to deliver therapeutic agents directly to cancer cells while minimizing systemic toxicity. Among these, carbon-based nanoparticles, specifically carbon dots (C-dots), offer significant advantages due to their biocompatibility and low toxicity compared to metallic nanoparticles, yet their application in oncology remains relatively underexplored. In this study, carbon dots were synthesized through a simple one-step wet chemical method using three carbohydrate precursors: glucose (GCD), sucrose (SCD), and fructose (FCD). The resulting nanoparticles were characterized using UV-Visible and fluorescence spectroscopy to confirm their structural and optical properties. The anticancer potential of these C-dots was evaluated against human liver carcinoma (HepG2) and human breast carcinoma (MCF-7) cell lines using the MTT assay. The IC?? values determined for HepG2 cells were 67.24 ?g/mL for SCD, and less than 50 ?g/ mL for both GCD and FCD, while for MCF-7 cells, the IC?? values were 105 ?g/mL for SCD and below 50 ?g/mL for GCD and FCD. These findings demonstrate that C-dots synthesized from different sugar precursors can effectively inhibit cancer cell growth, highlighting their potential as novel candidates for anticancer drug development and targeted therapy applications.