Electrochemical sensing of anti-cancer drug (Capecitabine) by GC-MWCNT-PAMAM (G3)-AuNps electrode

Abstract

Capecitabine (CPT) is an oral antineoplastic prodrug of 5-Flurorouracil (5-FU), administered for the treatment of metastatic breast and colorectal cancers. Detection of trace quantity of Capecitabine in pharmaceutical drug dosages is very crucial and essential owing to its life threating toxic adverse effects. In this study, an effective conducting nanohybrid namely, MWCNT-PAMAM (G3)-AuNps was developed and characterized by Raman, FT-IR, SEM and HR-TEM techniques. The developed conducting nanohybrid was used for fabrication of effective and stable active electrode viz., GCE-MWCNT-PAMAM (G3)-AuNps which in turn demonstrated for effective sensing of trace quantity of Capecitabine i.e., at a concentration of 5 x 10-12 M under lower potentials. The reduction of Capecitabine was investigated through cyclic voltammetry in the presence of H 2 SO 4 (pH 1.54) as supporting electrolyte. The presence of Capecitabine exhibited an irreversible reductive peak potential at ~0.835 V which was observed from mixed diffusion-adsorption controlled processes. The mechanism for electrochemical-chemical reduction, trace and rapid determination of Capecitabine are reported. This newly developed electrode has a potential to sense/ detect the Capecitabine at the concentration of 5 x 10-12 M under lower potentials. Further, it is expected that there is a strong scope for quality control in pharmaceutical formulates.