Cellular Uptake of Mildly Oxidized Nanographene for Drug-Delivery Applications

Year: 2020

Authors: Mugnano M.; Lama G. C.; Castaldo R.; Marchesano V.; Merola F.; Del Giudice D.; Calabuig A.; Gentile G.; Ambrogi V.; Cerruti P.; Memmolo P.; Pagliarulo V.; Ferraro P.; Grilli S.

Autors Affiliation: Universita degli Studi di Napoli Federico II; Institute of Applied Science and Intelligent Systems; National Council of Research

Abstract: Graphene family materials (GFMs) have large perspectives for drug-delivery applications, but their internalization in live cells is under investigation in a wide variety of studies in order to assess the best conditions for efficient cellular uptake. Here we show that mild oxidation of graphene nanoplatelets produces nanographene oxide (nGO) particles, which are massively internalized into the cell cytoplasm. This remarkable uptake of nGO in NIH-3T3 cells has never been observed before. We performed vitality tests for demonstrating the biocompatibility of the material and analyzed the internalization mechanism under different oxidation degrees and concentrations. Moreover, we evaluated quantitatively, for the first time, the cell volume variation after nGO internalization in live cells through a label-free digital holographic imaging technique and in quasi-real-time modality, thus avoiding the time-consuming and detrimental procedures usually employed by electron-based microscopy. The results demonstrate that nGO formulations with a tailored balance between the exposed surface and content of functional groups are very promising in drug-delivery applications.

Journal/Review: ACS APPLIED NANO MATERIALS

Volume: 3 (1)      Pages from: 428  to: 439

More Information: The authors acknowledge the EU funding within the Horizon 2020 Program, under the FET-OPEN Project “SensApp” (Grant 829104) and the MSCA-RISE 2016 Project “VAHVIS-TUS” (Grant 734759). The authors acknowledge Dr. Luigi Leone and Dr. Ida Romano for use of the spectrophotometer facility.
KeyWords: cell culture, cellular uptake, cytotoxicity, digital holography, graphene-based nanomaterials, nanographene oxide, nanoplatelets
DOI: 10.1021/acsanm.9b02035

Citations: 18
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