Dual Drug Loaded Potassium-contained Graphene Oxide as a Nanocarrier in Cocktailed Drug Delivery for the Treatment of Human Breast Cancer

Abstract

Background: In particular, combinatorial use of anticancer drugs, dual or multiple, onto a specific nanocarrier is one of the most hopeful attempts in the field of drug delivery. The current work reports potassium contained graphene oxide (K-GO) as a nanocarrier in the drug delivery system of two anticancer drugs, gefitinib (GEF) and camptothecin (CPT), simultaneously. Methods: To characterize K-GO, K-GO-related single and combined drug systems, different techniques has been performed and studied using spectroscopic tools (Thermo gravimetric Analysis (TGA 4000), UV–visible spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, Transmission electron microscopy (TEM)). The in vitro cytotoxicity tests of K-GO, single drug system and the combined drug system were also performed in the human breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells. Results: The release profile of the dual drug conjugates grafted on to the surface of K-GO was found up to 38% in PBS solution over 72hr. The percentage of MDA-MB-231 cell viability were about 18% when treated with K-GO-GEF-CPT combined system, for K-GO, K-GO-GEF, and K-GO-CPT that were only 79 %, 31% and 32 % respectively. Conclusion: We studied the loading, release, and delivery of two anticancer drugs onto the fluorescent nanocarrier i.e. K-GO. Due to superb aqueous solubility, excellent biocompatibility and richness of potassium in it make them a promising nanocarrier for single or multiple drug delivery. With this, our novel findings revealed that the loading capacity and cytotoxicity of combined drug loaded system superior then that of individual drug system towards human breast cancer cells.