Calcite single crystals as hosts for atomic-scale entrapment and slow release of drugs

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that calcite single crystals can effectively entrap doxorubicin molecules within their lattice, enabling pH-responsive, slow drug release for targeted cancer therapy, characterized through structural and biological methods.

Contribution

It introduces a biomimetic method for incorporating drugs into calcite crystals, showing their potential as controlled drug delivery systems.

Findings

Doxorubicin is uniformly embedded inside calcite crystals.

Calcite crystals exhibit pH-responsive slow drug release.

Structural analysis confirms lattice entrapment of the drug.

Abstract

This study presents a complete structural and biological characterization of Doxorubicin CaCO3 single crystals as a pH responsive drug carrier. Using a biomimetic approach, it was demonstrated that calcite single crystals are able, during their growth in presence of doxorubicin, to entrap drug molecules inside their lattice, along specific crystallographic directions. High resolution synchrotron powder diffraction measurements allowed the determination of the lattice distortion and microstructural parameters. Confocal microscopy confirmed that doxorubicin is uniformly embedded in the crystal and that the drug is not only adsorbed on the crystal surface. A slow release of DOX is obtained that occurs preferentially in proximity of the crystals, targeting cancer cells.