Praseodymium metal nanorods as a 5-fluorouracil carrier

Interest in metal nanoparticles as nanoscale drug-carrying vehicles has been increasing. In such an aspect, lanthanide metal nanoparticles are particularly intriguing. Herein, we report praseodymium nanoparticles as a novel anticancer therapeutic transporting agent. The material was made as a composite with the supramolecular host polymer, poly-b-cyclodextrin. The praseodymium nanorods were characterized using standard analytical techniques, including X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). In addition, they were imaged using transmission electron microscopy. The nanostructures are a long rod-shaped material with 2.0 +/- 0.1 mm in length and 230 +/- 10 nm in width. The material shows a saturation magnetization value above 30 emu/ g with a coercivity value of 130 Oe. The nanocarrier is freighted with the drug 5-fluorouracil, and the encapsulation efficiency is 76.09%. The drug release is continuous from the nanocarrier (polymer-containing praseodymium nanoparticles) and proceeds for above 250 h. The in vitro cytotoxicities of the blank nanocarrier and the 5-fluorouracil-loaded one are deduced by testing them on MCF-7 and Vero (non-cancerous) cell lines. The cytotoxicity on the cancerous cell lines is observed, whereas the noncancerous cells are unaffected. The IC50 values on the cell lines are reported. (c) 2023 Chinese Society of Rare Earths. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights are reserved, including those