SCHEDULED MAINTENANCE
Multifunctional human serum albumin-modified reduced graphene oxide for targeted photothermal therapy of hepatocellular carcinoma†
Abstract
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common cancer worldwide, and has a high degree of malignancy and poor prognosis. Early diagnosis and treatment of HCC would significantly improve clinical outcomes. Near infrared (NIR) laser and photo-absorbing agent-based photothermal therapy (PTT) is an emerging therapeutic hyperthermia approach, and has been suggested as a minimally invasive and highly efficient therapeutic method. Reduced graphene oxide (rGO) is one of the most typical photothermal agents. Compared with other materials, rGO possesses some advantages, such as simple synthesis, low cost, high photo-stability and large surface area for drug loading. However, rGO exhibits poor dispersibility and difficult modification due to loss of the hydrophilic functional groups during the reduction process. Thus, the modification processes of rGO are always complicated, time-consuming, and require some expensive polymers. In this paper, human serum albumin (HSA) was functionalized with indocyanine green (ICG) and lactobionic acid (LA) to prepare multifunctional human serum albumin (mfHSA), which could be used for the modification of rGO. This approach is simple and highly efficient, and not only improves the stability and the biocompatibility of rGO, but also makes it exhibit an enhanced photothermal conversion efficiency and targeting specificity towards HCC cells. The low cytotoxicity and the high PTT therapeutic efficacy at both the cellular and animal levels indicated that the prepared multifunctional nanomaterials could serve as a highly effective therapeutic agent for HCC.
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