Resumo/Summary:

Nanoformulations for the administration of doxorubicin (DOX) in the treatment of cancer use “active loading” processes to reach higher doses with the disadvantage of having high toxicity and low therapeutic efficacy in DNA intercalation. CONCERT proposes the development of nanostructured lipid carriers (NLC) with an internal structure of honeycomb type for a greater encapsulation of DOX or graphene quantum dots conjugates (DOX@GQD) and cationic surface charge for conjugation with interfering ribonucleic acid (si-RNA), suppressor of multidrug resistance (MDR). The proposed NLC has a rigid coating that offers greater stability and active targeting to Her2 receptors overexpressed in cancer cells.  CONCERT strategies will bring several advantages: (i) improved therapeutic effect; (ii) increased selectivity for carcinogenic tissues; (iii) controlled release profile of the drug using GQD as pH switches sensitive to acidic tissues of the cancer. The nanoformulations developed will be compared with commercial therapies and tested in vitro on breast and ovarian cancer cells and in vivo on zebrafish embryos to assess their effectiveness as anticancer therapy.