Electrostatic self-assembly of functionalized nanodiamonds and their binding capacity with doxorubicin drugs

While cancers have no known cure, some of them can be successfully treated with the combination of surgery and systematic therapy. In general, system ic/widespread chemotherapy is usually injected into the bloodstream to attempt to target cancer cells. Such procedure often imparts devastating side effects because cancer drugs are nonspecific in activity, and transporting them throughout the bloodstream further reduces their ability to target the right region. This means that they kill both healthy and unhealthy cells. It has been observed that the physiological conditions of the fluids around living cells can be characterized by p^H, and the magnitude of p^H around a living cell is different from cancerous cells. Moreover, a multiscale anatomy of carcinoma will reveal that the microstructurc of cancer cells contains some characteristic elements such as specific biomarker receptors and DNA molecules that exclusively differentiate them from healthy cells. If these cancer specific ligands can be intercalated by some functional molecules supplied from an implantable patch, then the patch can be envisioned to serve as a complementary technology with current systemic therapy to enhance localized treatment efficiency, minimize excess injections/surgeries, and prevent rumor recurrence. The broader objective of our current research is to capture some fundamental insights of such drug delivery patch system. It is envisioned that the essential components of the device is nanodiamonds (ND), pary lene buffer layer and doxorubicin (DOX) drugs. In its simplest form, self-assembled nanodiamonds - functionalized or pristine, and DOX molecules are contained inside parylene capsule. The efficient functioning of the device is characterized by its ability to precisely detect targets (cancer cells) and then to release drugs at a controlled manner. The fundamental science issues concerning the development of the ND-based device include: 1. A precise identification of the equilibrium structure and self assembled morphology of nanodiamonds, 2. Fundamental understanding of the drug adsorption and desorption process to and from NDs, and 3. The rate of drug release through the parylene buffers.