Development of biotin molecule targeted cancer cell drug delivery of doxorubicin loaded κ-carrageenan grafted graphene oxide nanocarrier

Synthesis, Characterization, and Evaluation of Redox-Sensitive Chitosan Oligosaccharide Nanoparticles Coated with Phycocyanin for Drug Delivery

In this paper, a type of phycocyanin (PC)-functionalized and curcumin (CUR)-loaded biotin-chitosan oligosaccharide-dithiodipropionic acid-curcumin (BCSC) nanoparticles, called CUR-BCSC@PCs, were designed to enhance the biocompatibility of CUR. The structure of BCSC was confirmed using ¹H-NMR. In CUR-BCSC@PCs with an average hydrodynamic diameter of 160.3 ± 9.0 nm, the biomimetic protein corona gave the nanoparticles excellent stability and the potential to avoid protein adsorption in blood circulation. The in vitro release experiment verified that CUR-BCSC@PCs with redox responsive shells were sensitive to high concentrations of glutathione. In addition, CUR-BCSC@PCs were effective at increasing the inhibitory activity on the proliferation of A549 cells by enhancing the intracellular uptake of CUR. These results indicated that CUR-BCSC@PCs have great application prospects in cancer therapy as effective drug delivery carriers.

Graphenic Materials for Biomedical Applications

Graphene-based nanomaterials have been intensively studied for their properties, modifications, and application potential. Biomedical applications are one of the main directions of research in this field. This review summarizes the research results which were obtained in the last two years (2017-2019), especially those related to drug/gene/protein delivery systems and materials with antimicrobial properties. Due to the large number of studies in the area of carbon nanomaterials, attention here is focused only on 2D structures, i.e. graphene, graphene oxide, and reduced graphene oxide.

Nanocarriers Used Most in Drug Delivery and Drug Release: Nanohydrogel, Chitosan, Graphene, and Solid Lipid

Over the past few years, nanocarriers have become an ideal solution for safe and efficient drug delivery and release. This is mainly due to the extraordinary characteristics that nanomaterials exhibit when compared with their larger scaled forms. A variety of these carriers are more popular due to their high biocompatibility, ensuring greater efficacy especially in cancer treatments. Nanocrystal, liposomal, and micelle designs of these materials as nanocarriers for drug delivery and release have been extensively researched throughout the past 50 years. Successful applications have not only ensured a greater focus on therapeutic development but also created a new solution available in the pharmaceutical market. Herein, a brief review of research studies focused on nanocarrier materials and designs to achieve superior benefits of drugs for disease treatments is presented. Nanohydrogels, chitosan, graphene oxide, and solid lipid nanoparticle nanocarrier designs and applications are selectively given due to the great attention they have gained from being highly biocompatible and easy-to-manipulate nanocarrier options from organic and inorganic nanocarrier materials. Each summary exhibits the progress that has been achieved to date. With greater understanding of the current state in the development process of these nanomaterials, there is a rising chance to provide better treatment to patients, which is a desperate need in pharmaceutical technologies.

Folic acid-functionalized graphene oxide nanosheets via plasma etching as a platform to combine NIR anticancer phototherapy and targeted drug delivery

PEGylated graphene oxide (GO) has shown potential as NIR converting agent to produce local heat useful in breast cancer therapy, since its suitable photothermal conversion, high stability in physiological fluids, biocompatibility and huge specific surface. GO is an appealing nanomaterial for potential clinical applications combining drug delivery and photothermal therapy in a single nano-device capable of specifically targeting breast cancer cells. However, native GO sheets have large dimensions (0.5-5 μm) such that tumor accumulation after a systemic administration is usually precluded. Herein, we report a step-by-step synthesis of folic acid-functionalized PEGylated GO, henceforth named GO-PEG-Fol, with small size and narrow size distribution (∼30 ± 5 nm), and the ability of efficiently converting NIR light into heat. GO-PEG-Fol consists of a nano-GO sheet, obtained by fragmentation of GO by means of non-equilibrium plasma etching, fully functionalized with folic acid-terminated PEG₂₀₀₀ chains through amidic coupling and azide-alkyne click cycloaddition, which we showed as active targeting agents to selectively recognize breast cancer cells such as MCF7 and MDA-MB-231. The GO-PEG-Fol incorporated a high amount of doxorubicin hydrochloride (Doxo) (>33%) and behaves as NIR-light-activated heater capable of triggering sudden Doxo delivery inside cancer cells and localized hyperthermia, thus provoking efficient breast cancer death. The cytotoxic effect was found to be selective for breast cancer cells, being the IC₅₀ up to 12 times lower than that observed for healthy fibroblasts. This work established plasma etching as a cost-effective strategy to get functionalized nano-GO with a smart combination of properties such as small size, good photothermal efficiency and targeted cytotoxic effect, which make it a promising candidate as photothermal agent for the treatment of breast cancer.