Department of Biochemistry, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Korea National University of Transportation, Chungju, Republic of Korea.
Int J Mol Sci. 2022 Dec 1;23(23):15087. doi: 10.3390/ijms232315087.
Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide. Conventional methods of cancer treatment, including chemotherapy and radiotherapy, are associated with multiple side effects. Recently, photodynamic therapy (PDT) has emerged as an effective therapeutic modality for cancer treatment without adversely affecting normal tissue. In this study, we synthesized nitrogen doped graphene (NDG) and conjugated it with MnO nanoparticles to produce NDG-MnO nanocomposite with the aim of testing its bimodal performance including PDT and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We did not use any linker or binder for conjugation between NDG and MnO, rather they were anchored by a milling process. The results of cell viability analysis showed that NDG-MnO nanocomposites caused significant cell death under laser irradiation, while control and MnO nanoparticles showed negligible cell death. We observed increased generation of singlet oxygen after exposure of NDG-MnO nanocomposites, which was directly proportional to the duration of laser irradiation. The results of MRI showed concentration dependent enhancement of signal intensity with an increasing concentration of NDG-MnO nanocomposites. In conclusion, NDG-MnO nanocomposites did not cause any cytotoxicity under physiological conditions. However, they produced significant and dose-dependent cytotoxicity in cancer cells after laser irradiation. NDG-MnO nanocomposites also exhibited concentration-dependent MRI contrast property, suggesting their possible application for cancer imaging. Further studies are warranted to test the theranostic potential of NDG-MnO nanocomposites using animal models of cancer.
癌症是全球主要的死亡原因。包括化疗和放疗在内的癌症常规治疗方法存在多种副作用。最近，光动力疗法（PDT）已成为一种治疗癌症的有效方法，不会对正常组织造成不良影响。在本研究中，我们合成了氮掺杂石墨烯（NDG）并将其与 MnO 纳米颗粒结合，制备了具有光动力治疗和磁共振成像（MRI）双重性能的 NDG-MnO 纳米复合材料。我们没有使用任何连接剂或粘合剂来实现 NDG 和 MnO 之间的结合，而是通过研磨过程将它们固定在一起。细胞活力分析的结果表明，NDG-MnO 纳米复合材料在激光照射下会导致细胞明显死亡，而对照和 MnO 纳米颗粒几乎不会导致细胞死亡。我们观察到 NDG-MnO 纳米复合材料暴露后单线态氧的生成增加，其与激光照射的时间成正比。MRI 的结果表明，随着 NDG-MnO 纳米复合材料浓度的增加，信号强度呈浓度依赖性增强。总之，NDG-MnO 纳米复合材料在生理条件下不会引起任何细胞毒性。但是，在激光照射后，它们会对癌细胞产生显著的、剂量依赖性的细胞毒性。NDG-MnO 纳米复合材料还表现出浓度依赖性的 MRI 对比特性，表明它们可能适用于癌症成像。需要进一步的研究来使用癌症动物模型测试 NDG-MnO 纳米复合材料的治疗潜力。
