In Vitro Hyperthermia Evaluation of Electrospun Polymer Composite Fibers Loaded with Reduced Graphene Oxide.

Ignacio A Zárate,Héctor Aguilar-Bolados,Andrónico Neira-Carrillo,Mehrdad Yazdani-Pedram,Guadalupe Del C Pizarro

doi:10.3390/polym12112663

Ignacio A Zárate, Héctor Aguilar-Bolados + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/polym12112663

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Abstract

Electrospun meshes (EM) composed of natural and synthetic polymers with randomly or aligned fibers orientations containing 0.5% or 1% of thermally reduced graphene oxide (TrGO) were prepared by electrospinning (ES), and their hyperthermia properties were evaluated. EM loaded with and without TrGO were irradiated using near infrared radiation (NIR) at 808 nm by varying the distance and electric potential recorded at 30 s. Morphological, spectroscopic, and thermal aspects of EM samples were analyzed by using SEM-EDS, Raman and X-ray photoelectron (XPS) spectroscopies, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and NIR radiation response. We found that the composite EM made of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), natural rubber (NR), and arabic gum (AG) containing TrGO showed improved hyperthermia properties compared to EM without TrGO, reaching an average temperature range of 42–52 °C. We also found that the distribution of TrGO in the EM depends on the orientation of the fibers. These results allow infering that EM loaded with TrGO as a NIR-active thermal inducer could be an excellent candidate for hyperthermia applications in photothermal therapy.

Highlights

A composite material consists of different phases being homogeneous on a macroscopic scale and heterogeneous on a microscopic scale
We found that the recorded thermal values of random EM4 in average were 19.6, 28.9, and 33 ◦ C for electric potentials of 5, 7.5, and 10 V, respectively, demonstrating the direct proportional effect of electric potential and that the hyperthermia was inversely proportional to distance when using 0.% thermally reduced graphene oxide (TrGO) as an near infrared radiation (NIR)-light induced photothermal agent
We found higher thermal values for EM4, and the ∆T suggests that the concentration of 1% TrGO in EM4 is essential when irradiating with NIR to promote hyperthermia

Summary

Introduction

A composite material consists of different phases being homogeneous on a macroscopic scale and heterogeneous on a microscopic scale. These materials are basically made up of a matrix with a major proportion, which may be metallic, polymeric, or ceramic, and a reinforcement with minor proportion, which given its geometry, can be particles, fibers, or sheets. Given the structural and hybridization characteristics of graphene and its strong optical absorbance in near infrared region [2,3,4], it has been used as a photothermal agent for the in vitro and in vivo therapies in cancer treatment [5,6,7]. Different materials absorbing near infrared radiation (NIR) light to generate heat have been developed such as metallic and magnetic nanoparticles, conductive polymers, and carbon nanomaterials [8].

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