Abstract
Carbon nanomaterials, specifically, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have many potential applications in biology and medicine. Currently, this material has not reached its full potential for application due to the potential toxicity to mammalian cells, and the incomplete understanding of how CNTs interface with cells. The chemical composition and structural features of CNTs have been shown to directly affect their biological compatibility. The incorporation of nitrogen dopants to the graphitic lattice of CNTs results in a unique cup shaped morphology and minimal cytotoxicity in comparison to its undoped counterpart. In this study, we investigate how uniquely shaped nitrogen-doped carbon nanocups (NCNCs) interface with HeLa cells, a cervical cancer epithelial cultured cell line, and RPE-1 cells, an immortalized cultured epithelial cell line. We determined that NCNCs do not elicit a cytotoxic response in cells, and that they are uptaken via endocytosis. We have conjugated fluorescently tagged antibodies to NCNCs and shown that the protein-conjugated material is also capable of entering cells. This primes NCNCs to be a good candidate for subsequent protein modifications and applications in biological systems.
Highlights
Carbon nanomaterials have garnered great interest for their biological applications due to their ease of chemical functionalization [1], fine-tuned control over their length distributions [2], and ability for enzymatic biodegradation [3,4]
These modifications are improvements to the use of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), it has been noted that the synthesis process and the types of functional groups present on nanotubes may influence their interaction with cells [10,13,14,15]
In this study we investigated the interactions of nitrogen-doped carbon nanocups (NCNCs) with two cell lines; HeLa, a cervical cancer epithelial cultured cell line, and RPE-1, an immortalized epithelial cultured cell line
Summary
Carbon nanomaterials have garnered great interest for their biological applications due to their ease of chemical functionalization [1], fine-tuned control over their length distributions [2], and ability for enzymatic biodegradation [3,4]. The addition of carboxy and/or amine functional groups to the surface of CNTs reduces the toxicity of the material and bolsters its solubility in aqueous solutions [5,8,12] These modifications are improvements to the use of CNTs, it has been noted that the synthesis process and the types of functional groups present on nanotubes may influence their interaction with cells [10,13,14,15]. The nitrogen dopants exist primarily around the open edge of the cup allowing for chemical decoration with gold nanoparticles to create a sealed capsule for drug delivery [19,20] For this material, functional studies have been done on mouse models and immune cells [19,20]. We demonstrated that IgG-conjugated NCNCs are successfully uptaken by cells
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