| Curcumin (CUR) is a lowly water-soluble natural polyphenol with chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic activities. Hence, to achieve the system with good CUR loading ability, porous MIL-88 (Fe) was prepared in the presence of the presynthesized graphene quantum dots (GQDs) (GQDs@MIL-88 (Fe)). In the following, CUR loaded in
the fabricated GQDs@MIL-88 (Fe) nanohybrid. The characterization techniques; Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), photoluminescence (PL), and
Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) analysis showed success in the synthesis of GQDs@MIL-88 (Fe). Moreover, the
FT-IR analysis displayed the loading of CUR and the formation of CUR@GQDs@MIL-88(Fe). Chitosan (CS) was
used as a green coating to enhance the biocompatibility of the prepared system (CS/CUR@GQDs@MIL-88(Fe).
The fabricated microspheres showed pH-sensitive swelling behavior and released 38.3% of CUR in pH 5.0
which is better fitted with the First-order kinetic model (R2 = 0.9726). In comparison with CUR@GQDs@MIL-
88(Fe), the MTT and DAPI assay exhibited less toxic effect for CS/CUR@GQDs@MIL-88(Fe) against MDA-MB
231 cells. Moreover, the safety of the CS/CUR@GQDs@MIL-88(Fe) confirmed after incubation against MCF 10A
as a model of the normal cell line. The results conveyed a new concept that the CS/CUR@GQDs@MIL-88(Fe) is
a potential candidate for using as a biocompatible carrier with controlled drug delivery ability. |