Department of Chemistry, Prairie View A&M University, Prairie View, TX 77446, USA.
Cooperative Agricultural Research Center, Prairie View A&M University, Prairie View, TX 77446, USA.
J Mater Chem B. 2021 Feb 25;9(7):1792-1803. doi: 10.1039/d0tb02366c.
Herein, we present the rational synthesis of a multimode photothermal agent, NGO-FA-CuS, for the advancement of photothermal therapy of cancer. The hierarchical architecture created in NGO-FA-CuS was attained by the covalent conjugation of folic acid (FA) to nanographene oxide (NGO) through amide bonding, followed by the hydrothermal deposition of CuS nanoflowers. In this approach, instead of mere mixing or deposition, FA was covalently bonded to NGO, which helped in retaining their intrinsic properties after binding and allowed to access them in the resulting hybrid nanostructure. In this specifically designed photothermal agent, NGO-FA-CuS, each component has an explicit task, i.e., NGO, FA and CuS act as the quencher, cancer cell-targeting moiety and photothermal transduction agent, respectively. Prior to the grafting of FA molecules and the deposition of CuS nanoflowers, sulfonic acid groups were introduced into NGO to provide stability under physiological conditions. Under irradiation using a 980 nm laser, NGO-FA-CuS was able to attain a temperature of 63.1 °C within 5 min, which is far beyond the survival temperature for cancer cells. Therefore, the resulting temperature recorded for NGO-FA-CuS was sufficient to induce hyperthermia in cancer cells to cause their death. When coming into contact with cancer cells, NGO-FA-CuS can cause a rapid increase in the temperature of their nucleus, destroy the genetic substances, and ultimately lead to exhaustive apoptosis under illumination using a near-infrared (NIR) laser. An excellent photothermal efficiency of 46.2% under illumination using a 980 nm laser and outstanding cytotoxicity against HeLa, SKOV3 and KB cells were attained with NGO-FA-CuS. Moreover, NGO-FA-CuS displays exceptional persistent photo-stability without photo-corrosiveness. The photothermal effect of NGO-FA-CuS was found to be dependent on its concentration and the power density of the laser source. It was found that its cytotoxicity toward cancer cells was enhanced with an increase in the concentration of NGO-FA-CuS and the incubation period.
在此，我们提出了一种多模式光热剂 NGO-FA-CuS 的合理合成方法，以推进癌症的光热治疗。NGO-FA-CuS 中的分级结构是通过通过酰胺键将叶酸（FA）共价键合到纳米氧化石墨烯（NGO）上来实现的，然后通过水热沉积 CuS 纳米花。在这种方法中，FA 不是简单地混合或沉积，而是通过共价键合到 NGO 上，这有助于在结合后保留其固有特性，并使其能够在所得的混合纳米结构中访问。在这种专门设计的光热剂 NGO-FA-CuS 中，NGO、FA 和 CuS 分别作为猝灭剂、癌细胞靶向部分和光热转导剂发挥作用。在嫁接 FA 分子和沉积 CuS 纳米花之前，将磺酸基团引入 NGO 中，以在生理条件下提供稳定性。在 980nm 激光照射下，NGO-FA-CuS 在 5 分钟内能够达到 63.1°C 的温度，远远超过癌细胞的存活温度。因此，记录到的 NGO-FA-CuS 温度足以诱导癌细胞过热以导致其死亡。当与癌细胞接触时，NGO-FA-CuS 可以导致其核内温度迅速升高，破坏遗传物质，最终在近红外（NIR）激光照射下导致细胞凋亡。NGO-FA-CuS 具有出色的光热效率，在 980nm 激光照射下为 46.2%，对 HeLa、SKOV3 和 KB 细胞具有出色的细胞毒性。此外，NGO-FA-CuS 表现出卓越的持久光稳定性而没有光腐蚀性。发现 NGO-FA-CuS 的光热效应与其浓度和激光源的功率密度有关。发现 NGO-FA-CuS 对癌细胞的细胞毒性随着 NGO-FA-CuS 浓度和孵育时间的增加而增强。
