Boron neutron capture therapy anti-tumor effect of nanostructured boron carbon nitride: A new potential candidate

Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) is a targeted radiotherapy modality in which 10B enriched compounds are delivered for local treatment of the cancer cells. In this work, boron carbon nitride (BCN) has been explored as a potential boron compound for BNCT. BCN compound with high solubility has been synthesized by simple solvothermal method. Structural analysis show synthesis of hexagonal BCN with presence of defect states. Morphological analysis show formation of layered structure with highly porous network. The optical properties have also been studied and calculated band gap of material is similar to 3.85 eV. Cytotoxicity analysis show that synthesized material is relatively less toxic and can be explored for BNCT applications. The anti-tumor effect on HeLa and U-87MG cell lines show potential of BCN in comparison to clinically studied L-BPA compound.