Laser ablation of asphalt and coal in different solvents an In Vitro study

Pulsed laser ablation in liquids (PLAL) is considered as green, cost effective, and facile method to produce nanocolloids which exhibit anticancer effect. When comparing breast cancer with other types of cancers, breast cancer is considered as the second cause of death in women. The objective of this article is to test the cytotoxicity of carbon-based materials prepared by PLAL on both the normal (REF) cell line and the human breast cancer (MCF7) cell line. In this study, PLAL is used to prepare nanocolloids of asphalt and coal in different solvents (ethanol, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), phosphate buffer saline (PBS), and distilled water (DW)). A fiber laser of wavelength of 1.06 μm and an average power of 10 watts was used to prepare different nanocolloids in different solvents from asphalt and coal. The cytotoxic effect of the prepared materials was tested against breast cancer MCF7 cell line in vitro. The asphalt in both ethanol and DMSO was found to have a significant cytotoxic effect and the growth inhibition (GI) was found to be 62.1% and 50.5% at concentrations of 620 and 80 ppm respectively, unlike the coal in DMSO which showed G.I. of 59.5%. Both the prepared materials in the mentioned solvents showed low cytotoxicity against the normal cell line (REF). We can conclude that the organic materials prepared in organic solvents using the PLAL had shown a low cytotoxicity against the (REF) cell line while they exhibited a significant cytotoxic effect against the MCF7 cell line. Further studies are recommended to test these prepared materials in vivo.