Abstract
Hyperthermia is a non-invasive process of killing cells through heat, as cells go into apoptosis when heated in the range of 41 °C-47 °C. In this work, the biologically active 4-pregnen-3-one-20β-carboxaldehyde (ketobisnoraldehyde) based steroidal diamine dimer (KPD) was chemically grafted on GO surface (GO-KPD) for the first time through an amidation reaction between amine groups of KPD and activated carboxylic acid sites of GO. Magnetite nanoparticles (Fe3O4) were dispersed on the prepared nanocomposite surface to produce GO-KPD-Fe3O4 nanocomposite with superparamagnetic property. To study the structural effect of KPD, 1,4 diamonobutane (Putrescine) was also grafted chemically on GO via amidation reaction. Successful functionalization of GO surface was confirmed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), elemental analysis, and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The morphology of the functionalized GO was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Furthermore, a cytotoxicity test on Michigan Cancer Foundation-7 (CMF-7) human breast cancer cell line was conducted. The data suggest that the prepared nanocomposite (GO-KPD-Fe3O4) has a cytotoxic potential against the MCF-7 cell line, thus it could be investigated as potential drug in hyperthermia cancer therapy.