Conventional anticancer chemotherapy is limited because of severe side effects as well as a quickly evolving multidrug resistance of the tumor cells. To address this problem, we have explored a C
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fullerene-based nanosized system as a carrier for anticancer drugs for an optimized drug delivery to leukemic cells.
Here, we studied the physicochemical properties and anticancer activity of C
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fullerene noncovalent complexes with the commonly used anticancer drug doxorubicin. C
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-Doxorubicin complexes in a ratio 1:1 and 2:1 were characterized with UV/Vis spectrometry, dynamic light scattering, and high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). The obtained analytical data indicated that the 140-nm complexes were stable and could be used for biological applications. In leukemic cell lines (CCRF-CEM, Jurkat, THP1 and Molt-16), the nanocomplexes revealed ≤ 3.5 higher cytotoxic potential in comparison with the free drug in a range of nanomolar concentrations. Also, the intracellular drug’s level evidenced C
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fullerene considerable nanocarrier function.
The results of this study indicated that C
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fullerene-based delivery nanocomplexes had a potential value for optimization of doxorubicin efficiency against leukemic cells.