Graphene quantum dots decorated with imatinib for leukemia treatment. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • The use of graphene quantum dots as biomedical device and drug delivery system has been increasing. This nanoplatform of pure carbon has showed unique properties and showed to be safe for human use. The imatinib is a molecule designed to specifically inhibit the tyrosine kinase, used for leukemia treatment. In this study, we successfully decorated the graphene quantum dots (GQDs@imatinb) by a carbodiimide crosslinking reaction. The GQDs@imatinb were characterized by FTIR and AFM. The nanoparticles' in vitro behaviors were evaluated by cellular trafficking (internalization) assay and cell viability and apoptosis assays in various cancer cell lines, including suspension (leukemia) cells and adherent cancer cells. The results showed that the incorporation of the imatinib on the surface of the graphene quantum dots did not change the nanoparticles' morphology and properties. The GQDs@imatinb could be efficiently internalized and kill cancer cells via the induction of apoptosis. The data indicated that the prepared GQDs@imatinb might be a great drug nano-platform for cancer, particularly leukemia treatments.

published proceedings

  • J Drug Deliv Sci Technol

author list (cited authors)

  • Mendes Felix, D., Rebelo Alencar, L. M., de Menezes, F. D., do Valle Pereira Midlej, V., Aguiar, L., Piperni, S. G., ... Santos-Oliveira, R.

citation count

  • 7

complete list of authors

  • Mendes Felix, Daniele||Rebelo Alencar, Luciana Magalhães||de Menezes, Frederico Duarte||do Valle Pereira Midlej, Victor||Aguiar, Lorayne||Piperni, Sara Gemini||Zhang, Jian||Liu, Yin||Ricci-Junior, Eduardo||Alexis, Frank||Alves Junior, Severino||Zhu, Lin||Santos-Oliveira, Ralph

publication date

  • January 2021