Impact of Docetaxel Conjugated Nanodiamonds on Gene Expression of Prostate Cancer (PC3) Cells

摘要

Prostate cancer (PC) is the second leading cause of adult male death in the United States which is due to uncontrolled growth of the prostate gland cells provoking the development of malignant tumors that could lead to death. Docetaxel (Dox) drug is used to treat PC but it becomes toxic at high concentrations or builds resistance to cancer cells in patients. Possible treatments for PC suggested the use of drug loaded nanoparticles as therapeutics. In this study, nanodiamonds (ND's) were used as carriers to deliver Dox to PC cells. ND's were conjugated with Dox and Dox along with RGD peptide using EDC/NHS chemistry. ND's in PC3 cells were tracked using ND-fluorescein which showed ND's were located in the cell nucleus after 24 hours of incubation. Drug release assay showed 92.3% of drug release from NDs in 24 hr. Microculture Tetrazolium Assay (MTT) assay showed 75% PC3 cells viability at 50μg/mL with ND's after 48 hr incubation compared to 50% with drug conjugated NDs stating that it efficient in causing cancer cell death. Gene expression analysis was conducted on PC3 cells with ND's and conjugated ND's after 24 hr incubation. NDR showed upregulation in many genes of PC cells. The study showed NDs can be used for efficient drug delivery for PC3 cells.