Therapeutic Potential of Chlorophyll Functionalized Carbon Quantum Dots against Cervical Cancer

Cervical cancer is an emerging gynecological disorder that affects the morbidity and mortality of the females worldwide. In 2018, according to the World Health Organization, 570,000 women were diagnosed with cervical cancer and 311,000 women died from the condition. Various anticancer agents are in the run to combat cervical cancer but overall results are still demoralizing. Various reports suggest that Quantum dots are being used as promising agents against several types of cancer. In the current study, we synthesized high-quantum yield chlorophyll functionalized carbon quantum dots (Chl-CQDs) from banana leaves with a simple and environment friendly hydrothermal process. The free radical activity of Chl-CQDs was measured using diphenyl picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and azino-bis (ethylbenzothiazoline sulphonic acid) diammonium salt (ABTS* ), as well as their cytotoxic, bioimaging, and apoptogenic properties were also evaluated on normal cell line HEK-293 and human cancer cell lines SiHa. Our results of dimethylthiazol diphenyltetrazolium bromide tetrazolium reduction (MTT) assay showed that Chl-CQDs have profound effect on SiHa cells with an IC50 of approximately 100 pg/m1 after 24 hours and no effect HEK-293 cells. Bioimaging and apoptogenic assays confirmed that Chl-CQDs exhibited strong therapeutic potential against SiHa cells and no cytotoxic potential against HEK-293 cells. The cumulative findings suggested that Chl-CQDs exhibited non-cytotoxic nature against HEK-293 cells whereas cytotoxic nature against SiHa cells.