EVALUATION OF THE ANTITUMOR ACTIVITY BY CdTe QDs WITH VERBASCOSIDE

Cadmium telluride quantum dots (QDs) have received significant attention in biomedical research because of their potential in drug delivery. In this study, the chemotherapeutic agent Verbascoside (VB) was immobilized successfully onto CdTe QDs by covalent bonding between the –OH group of VB and the –COOH group of CdTe QDs. The amount of VB that could be immobilized depended on the concentration of –COOH groups (succinic acid) on the surface of the CdTe QDs. Apoptotic staining, DNA fragmentation and flow cytometry analysis further demonstrated that compared with CdTe QDs or VB treatment alone, the apoptosis rate increased after the treatment of CdTe QDs together with VB (VB–QDs) in HepG2/ADM cells. We observed that VB–QDs treatment could clearly activate apoptosis-related Caspase 3 expression in HepG2/ADM cells. Moreover, our in vivo study indicated that the treatment of VB–QDs effectively inhibited the human hepatoma HepG2/ADM nude mice tumor growth. The increased cell apoptosis rate was closely correlated with the enhanced inhibition of tumor growth in the studied animals. Thus, VB–QDs may serve as a possible alternative for therapeutic approaches for some cancer treatments. In summary, studies have shown that cancer cells are treated by the presence of VB–QDs nanoparticles based on analysis of cell apoptosis.