A facile one-pot synthesis of starch functionalized graphene as nano-carrier for pH sensitive and starch-mediated drug delivery.

A fast, green and facile method was developed to prepare starch functionalized graphene nanosheets (starch-GNS) via the reduction of exfoliated graphene oxides by soluble starch, which acted both as a reductant and as a functionalization reagent for capping graphene nanosheets to prevent aggregation. The as-prepared starch-GNS exhibited good biocompatibility, which was deemed crucial for the biomedical application of graphene. Cellular toxicity tests suggested that the starch-GNS was nontoxic to SW-620 cells even at the relatively concentration of 200 μg mL(-1). After the loading of the commonly used anticancer drug hydroxycamptothecin (HCPT) via physisorption on starch-GNS, the HCPT@starch-GNS composite exhibited a high drug loading capacity and was therefore used for cellular imaging and drug delivery studies. Through the nonspecific endocytosis effect, the HCPT@starch-GNS composite was encapsulated into cytoplasm by SW-620 cancer cells. With the double action of an acid microenvironment and the diastase in SW-620 cells, the HCPT@starch-GNS composite showed high toxicity to the SW-620 cells and experienced a pH sensitive as well as a starch-mediated in vitro sustained release process, which had the potential advantage of improving therapeutic efficacy. Therefore, the starch-GNS composite could be used as an ideal nano-carrier for drug delivery and offered a new avenue for broadening the application of graphene in biomedicine.