Affiliation:
1. Department of Chemical Engineering National Taiwan University of Science and Technology Taipei 10607 Taiwan
2. Graduate Institute of Biomedical Optomechatronics College of Biomedical Engineering Taipei Medical University Taipei 110 Taiwan
3. School of Chemistry and Physics and QUT Centre for Materials Science Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Brisbane Queensland 4000 Australia
Abstract
AbstractOne of the major challenges on the way to low‐cost, simple, and effective cancer treatments is the lack of smart anticancer drug delivery materials with the requisite of site‐specific and microenvironment‐responsive properties. This work reports the development of plasma‐engineered smart drug nanocarriers (SDNCs) containing chitosan and nitrogen‐doped graphene quantum dots (NGQDs) for drug delivery in a pH‐responsive manner. Through a customized microplasma processing, a highly cross‐linked SDNC with only 4.5% of NGQD ratio can exhibit enhanced toughness up to threefold higher than the control chitosan group, avoiding the commonly used high temperatures and toxic chemical cross‐linking agents. The SDNCs demonstrate improved loading capability for doxorubicin (DOX) via π–π interactions and stable solid‐state photoluminescence to monitor the DOX loading and release through the Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) mechanism. Moreover, the DOX loaded SDNC exhibits anticancer effects against cancer cells during cytotoxicity tests at minimum concentration. Cellular uptake studies confirm that the DOX loaded SDNC can be successfully internalized into the nucleus after 12 h incubation period. This work provides new insights into the development of smart, environmental‐friendly, and biocompatible nanographene hydrogels for the next‐generation biomedical applications.
Funder
National Taiwan University of Science and Technology
Australian Research Council
Subject
Biomaterials,Biotechnology,General Materials Science,General Chemistry
Cited by
8 articles.
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