1. Adsorptive Stripping Voltammetric Determination of Low Levels of Daunorubicin
Joseph Wang,* Meng Shan Lin and Vince Villa. ANALYST, SEPTEMBER 1987, VOL. 112
The anthracycline antibiotic daunorubicin is a widely used anticancer drug, owing to its clinical efficacy against a wide range of malignancies. This drug was the first compound to show therapeutic effects in the treatment of leukaemia in man. The cytotoxic activity of daunorubicin against cancerous cells is hampered by dose-related cardiotoxic effects. Conse-quently, a highly sensitive analytical method is essential for the evaluation and administration of this drug. Various analytical methods have been employed for this purpose, including fluorescence, radioimmunoassayn and liquid chromatographic techniques. The complex redox activity of daunorubicin, and related anthracycline antibiotics, was investigated by Rao et aZ. who discussed the redox process in relation to the antineoplastic activity of these drugs. Anthracycline antibiotics contain two electroactive moieties: a reducible quinone group and an oxidisable hydroquinone centre. The reduction of the quinone group was used for polarographic measurements of the structurally similar anthracycline, Adriamycin, down to micromolar concentrations and for measuring the binding of anthracyclines to DNA. Trace amounts of daunorubicin have not yet been determined by voltammetric procedures.

Overview on in vitro and in vivo investigations of nanocomposite based cancer diagnosis and therapeutics
A. P. Subramanian, S. K. Jaganathan* and Eko Supriyanto. RSC Adv.,2015, 5, 72638–72652
Nanocomposite made of nano Fe₃O₄ and polylactide nanofibers loaded with daunorubicin to cause the induction of cell death of leukemia cancer cells was reported. The number of viable cells decreased when treated with the daunorubicin loaded nanocomposite. The cellular uptake was demonstrated by the inter-cellular green fluorescence emitted by the daunorubicin drug. The cell inhibition with the 9.93 *10^-7 and 1.99 * 10^-6 mol L^-1 daunorubicin concentrations in the presence of Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles or PLA nanofibers produced no significant di?erence fromthat of the cell treated with daunorubicin alone. However, for daunorubicin concentrations at 9.93 * 10^-7 and 1.99 * 10^-6 mol L^-1, the inhibition rates increased to 31% and 46% for the cell system cultured with daunorubicin and Fe₃O₄–PLA. Chen et al. developed a poly(lactic acid) (PLA) based nanocomposites for targeted drug delivery of daunorubicin to the leukemia K562 cells.