Targeting tumours with graphene oxide
A graphene oxide anti-cancer drug carrier that targets tumour cells by releasing the dose due to a decrease in pH has been designed by scientists from China.
Many anticancer drugs are toxic or cause harmful side effects because they target healthy cells as well as tumour cells. Scientists have developed a delivery system using functionalised graphene oxide as the drug carrier that targets only tumour cells. As cancer cells are typically more acidic than normal cells, the team developed the system to increase drug release as pH decreases.
The team, publishing their results in the Journal of Materials Chemistry attached superparamagnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles to the graphene oxide allowing the carrier to be targeted to the tumour site by an external magnetic field and they loaded doxorubicin, a potent anticancer drug, onto the graphene oxide. They tested the carrier in cell uptake and toxicity studies in human breast cancer cells in vitro. These tests confirmed that the carrier can transport and release doxorubicin into tumour cells.
Original publication: X Yang, Y Wang, X Huang, Y Ma, Y Huang, R Yang, H Duan and Y Chen, J. Mater. Chem., 2010.
Other news from the department science
