Abstract
Central focus in modern anticancer nanosystems is given to certain types of nanomaterials such as graphene oxide (GO). Its functionalization with polyethylene glycol (PEG) demonstrates high delivery efficiency and controllable release of proteins, bioimaging agents, chemotherapeutics and anticancer drugs. GO–PEG has a good biological safety profile, exhibits high NIR absorbance and capacity in photothermal treatment. To investigate the bioactivity of PEGylated GO NPs in combination with NIR irradiation on colorectal cancer cells we conducted experiments that aim to reveal the molecular mechanisms of action of this nanocarrier, combined with near-infrared light (NIR) on the high invasive Colon26 and the low invasive HT29 colon cancer cell lines. During reaching cancer cells the phototoxicity of GO–PEG is modulated by NIR laser irradiation. We observed that PEGylation of GO nanoparticles has well-pronounced biocompatibility toward colorectal carcinoma cells, besides their different malignant potential and treatment times. This biocompatibility is potentiated when GO–PEG treatment is combined with NIR irradiation, especially for cells cultured and treated for 24 h. The tested bioactivity of GO–PEG in combination with NIR irradiation induced little to no damages in DNA and did not influence the mitochondrial activity. Our findings demonstrate the potential of GO–PEG-based photoactivity as a nanosystem for colorectal cancer treatment.
Highlights
Despite immense efforts and billions of dollars invested each year in the search for new anticancer therapies, cancer continues to be the major lethality cause worldwide
This work aimed to evaluate the potential of graphene oxide (GO)–polyethylene glycol (PEG) nanoparticles to serve as a phototoxic switching nanocarrier system for colorectal cancer cells treatment
The tested bioactivity of GO with poly(ethylene glycol) (GO–PEG) in combination with near-infrared light (NIR) irradiation induced little to no damages in DNA
Summary
Despite immense efforts and billions of dollars invested each year in the search for new anticancer therapies, cancer continues to be the major lethality cause worldwide. The conventional treatments for CRC include surgery, chemo- and radiotherapy and the choice depends mainly on the tumor stage. Surgery is operated for the early, localized stage while chemotherapy and radiotherapy are the main treatment for the advanced CRC stages [3]. All treatments are accompanied by severe side effects and unsatisfactory results for cancer patients [4]. Poor tumor site-specificity, healthy tissue toxicity, and high tumor drug resistance are the main limitations of current therapies, decreasing the overall anticancer effectiveness [5]. An urgent need for the development of novel strategies that overcome the limitations of conventional anticancer approaches exists. Immunotherapy, photodynamic and photothermal therapy are new and promising anticancer treatments but yet undiscovered expansively [4,6,7,8]
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