Sodium alginate-functionalized nanodiamonds as sustained chemotherapeutic drug-release vectors

Abstract Prolonged therapeutic action over an extended period of time on single dose is vital in designing an ideal drug delivery system. Nanoparticle-based vehicles for drug delivery serves as an ideal technology, however, utilization of them remains controversial due to potential safety concerns and transient drug retention. Nanodiamonds (NDs), with excellent biocompatibility and diversity of potential conjugates, have emerged as alternative promising materials in this regard. Here, we developed sodium alginate functionalized NDs (fNDs) for drug delivery. Cisplatin (DDP) was chosen as a model drug and coated on the negatively charged fNDs clusters. Our work demonstrated that fNDs were capable of enhancing drug accumulation and retention time in tumor cells, leading to continued tumor cell killing effect after clearance of drug treatment. Furthermore, fNDs–DDP treatment improved drug safety compared to DDP treatment. Thus, this new platform may have strong potential for further biomedical application.