NANOSTRUCTURE FORMATION OF COLLAGEN AND ANTI-CANCER DRUGS INVESTIGATED BY ATOMIC FORCE MICROSCOPY

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) has been used to investigate several systems comprising a fibrous protein, namely type I collagen (COL) from bovine Achilles tendon, which co-assemble with an anti-cancer drug, such as 5-fluorouracil (FLU), doxorubicin (DOX) or lipoic acid (LA) to form nanostructured layers on mica substrate. The AFM technique allows visualisation of these nanostructures and determination of their surface roughness. The data show different morphology and good stability of self assemblies made of COL, FLU, DOX, LA, COL-FLU, COL-DOX or COL-LA. The anti-cancer drugs lead to the formation of collagen nanostructures with a remarkable level of nanometer scale order on mica, reflecting a high level of internal order within the adsorbed molecules network. Using anti-cancer drugs to self assemble with collagen molecules, more control over the collagen assembly formation is reached, consequently making these systems Well suited as biological surfaces for biomedical, drug delivery and sensing applications.