Graphene oxide (GO) modified with hyaluronic acid (HA) and Arg-gly-asp peptide (RGD) was designed as a dual-receptor targeting drug delivery system to enhance the specificity and efficiency of anticancer drug delivery. Firstly, GO-HA-RGD conjugate was characterized to reveal its structure and morphology. Whereafter, doxorubicin (Dox) as a model drug was loaded on GO-HA-RGD carrier, which displayed a high loading rate (72.9%, GO:Dox (w/w) = 1:1), pH-response and sustained drug release behavior. Cytotoxicity experiments showed that GO-HA-RGD possessed excellent biocompatibility towards SKOV-3 and HOSEpiC cells. Additionally, the GO-HA-RGD/Dox had a stronger cytotoxicity for SKOV-3 cells than either GO-HA/Dox (single receptor) or GO/Dox (no receptor). Moreover, celluar uptake studies illustrated that GO-HA-RGD conjugate could be effectively taken up by SKOV-3 cells via a synergic effect of CD44-HA and integrin-RGD mediated endocytosis. Hence, GO-HA-RGD nanocarrier is able to be a promising platform for targeted cancer therapeutic.
Keywords: Graphene oxide; RGD peptide; cancer therapeutic; dual-receptor; hyaluronic acid; synergic effect; targeting drug delivery system.