Irish researchers use leftover coffee grounds in nanomedicine treatment for breast cancer

An estimated six million tonnes of spent coffee grounds are produced annually around the world. Now scientists have made ‘carbon dots’ from these   - tailored to home in on cancer cells. File photo: John Walton/PA

Leftover coffee grounds can be upcycled into tiny carbon products with potential to damage breast cancer cells while sparing healthy tissues, new Irish research shows. 

The tiny ‘carbon dots’ could also deliver anti-cancer drugs in the body.

An estimated six million tonnes of spent coffee grounds are produced annually around the world. Now scientists have made ‘carbon dots’ from these   - tailored to home in on cancer cells.

Professor Silvia Giordani said cancer treatment is always advancing. “But challenges still remain, including the side-effects of chemotherapy,” she said.

“This is where we believe that nanomedicine, or using tiny nanoparticles such as carbon dots, could help improve treatment effectiveness and potentially reduce side-effects for patients.” 

Prof. Giordani is chair of Nanomaterials at the School of Chemical Sciences at Dublin City University and principal investigator at the DCU Life Sciences Institute.

“There was nothing special about the coffee we used, we just went out and bought it off the shelves in shops in Dublin,” she said. She said the carbon dots “hold great potential for many different applications, including drug delivery in the body". 

They were introduced into lab-cultured human cancerous and healthy cell lines.

“We saw that the carbon dots inhibited the growth of breast cancer cells in the lab, and that, importantly, they had minimal effects on healthy breast, kidney, and liver cell lines,” she said.

This shows their potential to damage breast cancer cells while sparing healthy tissues.

The study was part-financed by Cork-based charity Breakthrough Cancer Research.

Orla Dolan, CEO of the charity, said: “Turning yesterday’s coffee grounds into tomorrow’s cancer-fighting nanomedicines is both brilliantly inventive and deeply meaningful."