TY - JOUR
T1 - Plasma-Enabled Graphene Quantum Dot Hydrogels as Smart Anticancer Drug Nanocarriers
AU - Kurniawan, Darwin
AU - Mathew, Jacob
AU - Rahardja, Michael Ryan
AU - Pham, Hoang Phuc
AU - Wong, Pei Chun
AU - Rao, Neralla Vijayakameswara
AU - Ostrikov, Kostya
AU - Chiang, Wei Hung
N1 - Funding Information:
D.K., J.M., and M.R.R. contributed equally to this work. This work was supported by the National Science and Technology Council, Taiwan (grant nos. 111‐2223‐E‐011‐002‐MY3, 111‐2628‐E‐011‐002‐MY2, 109‐2923‐E‐011‐003‐MY3, 109‐2314‐B‐038‐149, 110‐2221‐E‐011‐027, 111‐2811‐E‐011‐018, 111‐NU‐E‐011‐001‐NU), the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology‐Taipei Medical University Joint Research Program (NTUST‐TMU‐110‐05), and the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (NTUST). The authors also thank Ms. Chia‐Ying Chien of National Taiwan University for the assistance in FE‐TEM experiment. K.O. thanks the Australian Research Council (ARC) and QUT Centre for Materials Science for partial support.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - One of the major challenges on the way to low-cost, simple, and effective cancer treatments is the lack of smart anticancer drug delivery materials with the requisite of site-specific and microenvironment-responsive properties. This work reports the development of plasma-engineered smart drug nanocarriers (SDNCs) containing chitosan and nitrogen-doped graphene quantum dots (NGQDs) for drug delivery in a pH-responsive manner. Through a customized microplasma processing, a highly cross-linked SDNC with only 4.5% of NGQD ratio can exhibit enhanced toughness up to threefold higher than the control chitosan group, avoiding the commonly used high temperatures and toxic chemical cross-linking agents. The SDNCs demonstrate improved loading capability for doxorubicin (DOX) via π–π interactions and stable solid-state photoluminescence to monitor the DOX loading and release through the Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) mechanism. Moreover, the DOX loaded SDNC exhibits anticancer effects against cancer cells during cytotoxicity tests at minimum concentration. Cellular uptake studies confirm that the DOX loaded SDNC can be successfully internalized into the nucleus after 12 h incubation period. This work provides new insights into the development of smart, environmental-friendly, and biocompatible nanographene hydrogels for the next-generation biomedical applications.
AB - One of the major challenges on the way to low-cost, simple, and effective cancer treatments is the lack of smart anticancer drug delivery materials with the requisite of site-specific and microenvironment-responsive properties. This work reports the development of plasma-engineered smart drug nanocarriers (SDNCs) containing chitosan and nitrogen-doped graphene quantum dots (NGQDs) for drug delivery in a pH-responsive manner. Through a customized microplasma processing, a highly cross-linked SDNC with only 4.5% of NGQD ratio can exhibit enhanced toughness up to threefold higher than the control chitosan group, avoiding the commonly used high temperatures and toxic chemical cross-linking agents. The SDNCs demonstrate improved loading capability for doxorubicin (DOX) via π–π interactions and stable solid-state photoluminescence to monitor the DOX loading and release through the Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) mechanism. Moreover, the DOX loaded SDNC exhibits anticancer effects against cancer cells during cytotoxicity tests at minimum concentration. Cellular uptake studies confirm that the DOX loaded SDNC can be successfully internalized into the nucleus after 12 h incubation period. This work provides new insights into the development of smart, environmental-friendly, and biocompatible nanographene hydrogels for the next-generation biomedical applications.
KW - anti-cancer
KW - graphene quantum dots
KW - hydrogels
KW - nanotechnology
KW - plasmas
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85147452564&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85147452564&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/smll.202206813
DO - 10.1002/smll.202206813
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85147452564
SN - 1613-6810
VL - 19
JO - Small
JF - Small
IS - 20
M1 - 2206813
ER -
