In vitro study of drug accumulation in cancer cells via specific association with CdS nanoparticles

We report a novel approach to enhance the efficient accumulation and utilization of anticancer drug daunorubicin on cancer cells through the combination with CdS nanoparticles. Our observations using confocal fluorescence scanning microscopy as well as electrochemical analysis methods demonstrate that CdS nanoparticles can readily bind with daunorubicin on the external membrane of the targeted cells and facilitate the uptake of drug molecules in the human leukemia K562 cells. Besides, our results also indicate that the competitive binding of CdS nanoparticles with accompanying anticancer drug to the membrane of leukemia K562 cells could efficiently prevent the drug release by the drug-sensitive and drug-resistant leukemia cells and thus inhibit the possible multidrug resistance of cancer cells, which could be further utilized to improve the future drug efficiency in respective tumor chemotherapies.