In Vitro and In Vivo Tumor Targeted Photothermal Cancer
Therapy Using Functionalized Graphene Nanoparticles
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Abstract
Despite
the tremendous progress that photothermal therapy (PTT)
has recently achieved, it still has a long way to go to gain the effective
targeted photothermal ablation of tumor cells. Driven by this need,
we describe a new class of targeted photothermal therapeutic agents
for cancer cells with pH responsive bioimaging using near-infrared
dye (NIR) IR825, conjugated poly(ethylene glycol)-<i>g</i>-poly(dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate) (PEG-<i>g</i>-PDMA,
PgP), and hyaluronic acid (HA) anchored reduced graphene oxide (rGO)
hybrid nanoparticles. The obtained rGO nanoparticles (PgP/HA-rGO)
showed pH-dependent fluorescence emission and excellent near-infrared
(NIR) irradiation of cancer cells targeted in vitro to provide cytotoxicity.
Using intravenously administered PTT agents, the time-dependent in
vivo tumor target accumulation was exactly defined, presenting eminent
photothermal conversion at 4 and 8 h post-injection, which was demonstrated
from the ex vivo biodistribution of tumors. These tumor environment
responsive hybrid nanoparticles generated photothermal heat, which
caused dominant suppression of tumor growth. The histopathological
studies obtained by H&E staining demonstrated complete healing
from malignant tumor. In an area of limited successes in cancer therapy,
our translation will pave the road to design stimulus environment
responsive targeted PTT agents for the safe eradication of devastating
cancer