Fe3O4@PEG-coated dendrimer modified graphene oxide nanocomposite as a pH-sensitive drug carrier for targeted delivery of doxorubicin

Abstract

Since dendrimer-based magnetic nanoparticles have presented remarkable potential as carriers in biomedical applications, it is worthwhile to construct a dendrimer-based drug delivery system for cancer treatment. Hence, in the present study, triazine dendrimer functionalized graphene oxide (GO-DT G2.5) was successfully fabricated by the divergent method. Then, the Fe3O4@PEG nanoparticles were attached to the surface of GO-TD G2.5 (GO-TD-Fe3O4@PEG) as a new magnetic nanocarrier for effective loading and the pH-responsive release of Doxorubicin (DOX). The structure and morphology of the synthesized GO-TD-Fe3O4@PEG were characterized by BET, XRD, DLS/ Zeta potential, UV–vis, FT‐IR, AFM, SEM, and VSM analysis. The surface morphology indicated that the average thickness of the sheets in the synthesized nanocarrier had approximately 144.21 nm. The encapsulation efficiency (EE) and drug-loading content (DLC) of this system were obtained ~92.6 and ~9.26%, respectively. The in vitro release studies of DOX from GO-TD-Fe3O4@PEG were performed at various pH values and found that the release process was noticeably controlled pHresponsive behavior. In vitro cytotoxicity studies of the as-synthesized GO-TD-Fe3O4@PEG against normal cell line (MCF-10A) and breast cancer cell line (MCF-7) confirmed that the non-toxic GO-TD-Fe3O4@PEG has excellent biocompatibility. DAPI staining and apoptosis analysis by flow-cytometry demonstrated that the apoptotic effects of GO-TD-Fe3O4@PEG-DOX have higher in comparison to free DOX. Cellular uptake also showed a high uptake percentage for GO-TD-Fe3O4@PEG-DOX than free DOX within 4 h. Therefore, the obtained results in this work suggesting that GO-TD-Fe3O4@PEG nanocomposite is a promising nanocarrier for targeted delivery and controlled release of anticancer drugs for biomedical applications.