[P008] Poster

1:00 PM - 1:50 PM JST(4:00 AM - 4:50 AM UTC)

[P04-610] Amino functionalized Niobium carbide for folate receptor targeted delivery of Doxorubicin

○Gayathri V G¹, Gopika S Kumar², Anwar A Palakkan², Pathath Abdul Rasheed⁴, Jagadeesh Bayry⁴, Manisha Dasarath Wasake³ (1. Research Scholar department of Biological sciences and engineering Indian Institute of Technology Palakkad (India), 2. Immunology and Stem Cell Biology, Aravind Medical Research Foundation, Anna Nagar, Madurai, Tamil Nadu-625020, India (India), 3. Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of technology Palakkad (India), 4. Department of Biological sciences and engineering Indian Institute of Technology Palakkad (India))

Keywords:

Cancer,Drug delivery,MXene,Niobium carbide,Targeted drug

Cancer is a chronic disease characterized by uncontrolled proliferation of abnormal cells that can adapt to unfavourable conditions. In 2022, around 20 million new cancer cases were reported worldwide, and projections indicate that cancer cases could rise to approximately 35 million by 2050. Chemotherapy is a key treatment strategy for cancer but chemotherapeutic drugs can cause severe side effects. Combining chemotherapeutic agents with nanocarriers can reduce these side effects by increasing the bioavailability of the drug.In this work, we developed an amino-functionalized Niobium carbide (Nb₂CT_x) MXene as a nanocarrier for targeted delivery of chemotherapeutic drug doxorubicin (DOX) to the cancer cells. Ethylenediamine (EDA) was used to introduce amino groups on to the surface of Nb₂CT_x, and the resulting Nb₂CT_x -EDA was evaluated for biocompatibility. Nb₂CT_x-EDA showed good biocompatibility across different concentrations in both normal and cancer cell lines. In contrast, DOX-loaded Nb₂CT_x-EDA showed a dose-dependent cytotoxicity in cancer cells, confirming the efficient drug release from the system. Confocal microscopy revealed effective cellular internalization of the nanoparticles in over 90% of the cells . To further improve the specificity, folic acid (FA) was conjugated to the system (Nb₂CT_x-EDA-DOX-FA) which displayed significantly higher cytotoxicity in HeLa cells compared to the non-targeted formulation. This improved activity is likely due to higher folate receptor expression in HeLa cells increasing the uptake of drug delivery system.These findings reveal the potential of amino-modified Nb₂CT_x MXenes as a versatile platform for targeted cancer treatment offering high drug-loading capacity, controlled release, and excellent biocompatibility.