Folic acid-conjugated raloxifene hydrochloride carbon nanotube for targeting breast cancer cells.

Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of mortality specifically for the women. The existing therapy is not sufficient due to the lack of target specificity and drug resistance. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are one of the promising formulation approaches that show a promising effect to target specifically the cancer cells, with better cellular internalization. CNTs were prepared based on the modified Staudenmaier process, where temperature and stirring speed were found to be the most influencing factor for particle size and entrapment of the drug raloxifene hydrochloride (RLX). The optimized formulation was produced with drug loading of about 74.2 ± 4.67% and the average particle size of 234.2 ± 1.7 nm. The surface of the CNTs was functionalized by folic acid (FA), which helps to deliver the drug on the site of the cancer cells only in a target-specific manner. in vitro drug-release studies indicated that the drug release was dependent on the pH of the system. Cytotoxicity study clearly indicated the efficacy of the FA physically conjugated CNTs with affectivity induces apoptosis in the cancer cell line with the IC50 value of 43.57305 μg/ml. The fluorescence imagining study showed higher cellular internalization of the RLX compared with the pure drug and the RLX-CNT formulation.