Laser activatable nanographene colloids for chemo-photothermal combined gene therapy of triple-negative breast cancer

Abstract

This investigation reports the green approach for developing laser activatable nanoscale-graphene colloids (nGC-CO-FA) for chemo-photothermal combined gene therapy of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). The nano colloid was found to be nanometric as characterized by SEM, AFM, and zeta sizer (68.2 ± 2.1 nm; 13.8 ± 1.2 mV). The doxorubicin (Dox) loaded employing hydrophobic interaction/π-π stacking showed >80% entrapment efficiency with a sustained pH-dependent drug release profile. It can efficiently incorporate siRNA and Dox and successfully co-localize them inside TNBC cells to obtain significant anticancer activity as evaluated using CCK-8 assay, apoptosis assay, cell cycle analysis, cellular uptake, fluorescence assay, endosomal escape study, DNA content analysis, and gene silencing efficacy studies. nGC-CO-FA/Dox/siRNA released the Dox in temperature- and a pH-responsive manner following NIR-808 laser irradiation. The synergistic photo-chemo-gene therapy using near infrared-808 nm laser (NIR-808) irradiation was found to be more effective as compared to without NIR-808 laser-treated counterparts (∆T: 37 ± 1.1 °C → to 49.2 ± 3.1 °C; 10 min; 0.5 W/cm2), suggesting the pivotal role of photothermal combined gene-therapy in the treatment of TNBC.