Capsaicin-entangled Multi-walled Carbon Nanotubes against Breast cancer: A Theoretical and Experimental Approach

Abstract The incidence of breast cancer has gradually increased of late due to many etiological factors. Conventional treatment strategies suffer from a lack of solubility, low bioavailability at the target site, lack of target specificity, and indiscriminate drug distribution which leads to drug resistance. The present study aimed to deliver capsaicin into breast cancer cells through folic acid-conjugated capsaicin-loaded carboxylic acid-functionalised multi-walled carbon nanotubes (FA-CAP-COOHMWCNTs). FA-CAP-COOHMWCNTs was formulated and characterized by FTIR, SEM, TEM, XRD, zeta potential, and particle size analyser. In silico studies demonstrated that the active molecule, capsaicin can strongly bind onto C-SRC kinase receptor to suppress cancer progression. The in-vitro cellular viability of MCF-7 after 24 h treatment with 100 µg × mL-1 of FA-CAP-COOHMWCNTs was found to be 29.27±2.59%and IC50 value was observed to be 22.71 µg × mL-1. Subsequently, in vivo anticancer activity of FA-CAP-COOHMWCNTs was performed against 7,12-dimethylbenz(a) anthracene (DMBA)-induced breast cancer in female Wistar rats. After 21 days of treatment with FA-CAP-COOHMWCNTs, breast cancer-induced rats showed a significant reduction in mammary tumor size, along with elevated levels of antioxidant and detoxifying enzymes in serum/breast tissue. The medium dose (5 mg × kg-1 b.w) FA-CAP-COOHMWCNTs showed the maximum antioxidant properties with a significant reduction in tumor size, almost equivalent to the standard drug, Doxorubicin. Histopathological studies also showed near-normal architecture of breast tissue. Altogether, it can be interpreted that FA-CAP-COOHMWCNTs have antiproliferative efficacy of breast tumor progression in breast cancer-induced rats.