Nitrogen Doped Porous Reduced Graphene Oxide Hybrid as a Nanocarrier of Imatinib Anticancer Drug

Abstract

Nowadays, the cancer is one of the world’s most devastating diseases. The researches shows carbon nanomaterials as carriers for selective and controlled drug release and therapeutic agents. In this work, we developed new polymeric carbon nanocarrier based on nitrogen doped porous reduced graphene oxide (N-prGO)-carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) as nanocarrier (NG-CMC) to load anticancer drug, imatinib (IM). The FE-SEM images, cyclic voltammetry, and Raman and UV-Vis spectroscopy methods confirmed the loading of IM on the NG-CMC. The results showed efficient loading of IM, ~74% at pH 7.00, time 3 h and 1 : 1 ratio of IM to NG-CMC onto NG-CMC. The biopolymer presence of CMC onto surface of nanocarrier due to the presence of –OH and –COOH groups interacts by hydrogen binding and π–π stacking with IM and enhanced the loading process of IM. The ~58.4, ~23.7, and ~16.2% of IM could be released from the NG- CMC upon the pH 4.00, 7.00, and 9.00, respectively, after 20 h. Thus, the development of present nanocarrier because of its unique physicochemical properties and high surface area is an ideal candidate for nanoscale assembly and able to deliver anticancer agents into cells.