Department of Chemistry, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND 58202, USA.
Department of Physics and Astrophysics, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND 58202, USA.
Int J Mol Sci. 2022 Nov 29;23(23):14931. doi: 10.3390/ijms232314931.
Recently, nano-based cancer therapeutics have been researched and developed, with some nanomaterials showing anticancer properties. When it comes to cancer treatment, graphene quantum dots (GQDs) contain the ability to generate O, a reactive oxidative species (ROS), allowing for the synergistic imaging and photodynamic therapy (PDT) of cancer. However, due to their small particle size, GQDs struggle to remain in the target area for long periods of time in addition to being poor drug carriers. To address this limitation of GQDs, hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticles (hMSNs) have been extensively researched for drug delivery applications. This project investigates the utilization and combination of biomass-derived GQDs and Stöber silica hMSNs to make graphene quantum dots-hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticles (GQDs-hMSNs) for fluorescent imaging and dual treatment of cancer via drug delivery and photodynamic therapy (PDT). Although the addition of hMSNs made the newly synthesized nanoparticles slightly more toxic at higher concentrations, the GQDs-hMSNs displayed excellent drug delivery using fluorescein (FITC) as a mock drug, and PDT treatment by using the GQDs as a photosensitizer (PS). Additionally, the GQDs retained their fluorescence through the surface binding to hMSNs, allowing them to still be used for cell-labeling applications.
最近，基于纳米的癌症治疗方法得到了研究和开发，一些纳米材料显示出抗癌特性。在癌症治疗方面，石墨烯量子点（GQDs）具有生成 O 的能力，即活性氧化物质（ROS），允许癌症的协同成像和光动力疗法（PDT）。然而，由于其粒径小，GQDs 难以长时间停留在目标区域，并且作为药物载体的效果不佳。为了解决 GQDs 的这一局限性，空心介孔硅纳米粒子（hMSNs）已被广泛研究用于药物输送应用。本项目研究了利用生物量衍生的 GQDs 和 Stöber 硅 hMSNs 的组合，以通过药物输送和光动力疗法（PDT）进行荧光成像和癌症的双重治疗来制造石墨烯量子点-空心介孔硅纳米粒子（GQDs-hMSNs）。尽管 hMSNs 的添加使新合成的纳米粒子在较高浓度下略微更具毒性，但 GQDs-hMSNs 显示出使用荧光素（FITC）作为模拟药物的优异药物输送能力，并且使用 GQDs 作为光敏剂（PS）进行 PDT 治疗。此外，GQDs 通过与 hMSNs 的表面结合保留了其荧光，使其仍可用于细胞标记应用。
