Description
Sodium nitroprusside is an FDA-approved medication used during hypertensive crises. When this drug reacts with metallic salts, it forms metal–nitroprusside complexes, which have good electrochemical and photocatalytic activities. Recently these complexes have been studied for cancer treatment. Under acidic conditions – such as those found into the tumor cells – metal-nitroprusside materials decompose and promote Fenton and Fenton-like reactions, generating reactive oxygen species (ROS) that kill cancer cells. Metal nitroprusside synthesis is typically performed in batch processes and often use non-green solvents. As a result, controlling nanoparticle size and uniformity, while also using green solvents, remains challenging. In this study, we used microfluidics to synthesize copper nitroprusside nanoparticles (CuNNPs) in citrate buffer as a strategy to overcome the limitations of batch production and the use of non-green solvents, obtaining CuNNPs with sizes in the 20–30 nm range, confirmed by TEM images. XRD and TGA analyses confirmed that CuNNPs obtained by the traditional batch method are anhydrous, while CuNNPs synthesized via microfluidics in citrate buffer correspond to the hydrated form. We compared the cytotoxicity of citrate-buffer microfluidics-synthesized CuNNPs (hydrated) and traditional batch-synthesized CuNNPs (anhydrous) in Kuramochi (ovarian cancer), Colo201 (colon cancer), and FT190 (normal) cells.The results showed that the IC₅₀ values for microfluidics-synthesized CuNNPs versus batch-synthesized CuNNPs were 2.72 ± 1.54 vs 1.48 ± 0.80 µg/mL (Kuramochi) and 7.47 ± 3.81 vs 6.21 ± 1.93 µg/mL (Colo201), while in normal FT190 cells the microfluidics-synthesized CuNNPs were much less cytotoxic (IC₅₀ = 158.00 ± 37.47 µg/mL) than batch-synthesized CuNNPs (IC₅₀ = 5.93 ± 0.32 µg/mL), suggesting minimal toxicity. These findings highlight the potential of CuNNPs as a cancer nanomedicine while emphasizing the need for further in vivo/organ-on-a-chip investigation to confirm their safety and effectiveness.