Interaction between the plant alkaloid berberine and fullerene C70: Experimental and quantum-chemical study

Abstract Antitumor effect of drugs can be enhanced by attaching these drugs to nanoparticles, in particular to fullerenes. In the present work the interaction between fullerene C 70 and berberine drug is studied as a first step prior to further biological tests. The structural and morphological analysis has been implemented by various physico-chemical methods including atomic force microscopy, small-angle X-ray scattering, dynamic light scattering, and optical absorption spectroscopy. We postulate the model structure of fullerene C 70 -berberine complex containing needles of berberine as a nucleus with a few fullerenes aggregates attached to it based on the obtained results.