In vitro anti-prostate adenocarcinoma and lung cancer studies of phenoxyaniline-block-poly(methyl methacrylate) based nanocomposites via controlled radical polymerization

A phenoxyaniline-based macroinitiator is utilized for the first time in order to produce phenoxyaniline-block-poly(methyl methacrylate) composites through single electron transfer-living radical polymerization (SET-LRP) under mild conditions. A different weight percentage of Cloisite 93A is added into the polymer mixtures in order to increase their biochemical properties. The prepared block copolymer nanocomposites are characterized using ATR-IR, UV-vis-spectroscopy, XRD, Raman, TGA, DSC, a particle size analyzer, contact angle measurements and SEM in order to characterize their structural, thermal, surface and morphological properties. Further, the developed polymeric nanocomposites are successfully applied in two different cancer cell lines (prostate adenocarcinoma and lung cancer), which show excellent anticancer properties. Also, acridine orange/ethidium bromide (AO/EtBr) dual staining is performed, which causes drastic cell death by apoptosis in both A549 and PC-3 cell lines, which indicated that the prepared polymeric nanocomposites effectively inhibit the cell proliferation and induce the apoptosis in both the cancer cells. Here nanoclay is used for cancer treatment because of its complete water solubility, which essentially causes the formation of a cationic complex between the clay and drug through electrostatic interactions. Hence, the exchange of ions between the clay and other ions in the biological environment leads to inhibition of the proliferation of prostate adenocarcinoma and lung cancer cells in the system.