Magnetic Graphene Oxide Nanocarrier for Targeted Delivery of Cisplatin: A Perspective for Glioblastoma Treatment

Sami A Makharza; Giuseppe Cirillo; Orazio Vittorio; Emanuele Valli; Florida Voli; Annafranca Farfalla; Manuela Curcio; Francesca Iemma; Fiore Pasquale Nicoletta; Ahmed A El-Gendy; Gerardo F Goya; Silke Hampel

doi:10.3390/ph12020076

Magnetic Graphene Oxide Nanocarrier for Targeted Delivery of Cisplatin: A Perspective for Glioblastoma Treatment

Pharmaceuticals (Basel). 2019 May 18;12(2):76. doi: 10.3390/ph12020076.

Authors

Sami A Makharza^{1

2}, Giuseppe Cirillo^{3

4}, Orazio Vittorio^{5

6

7}, Emanuele Valli^{8

9}, Florida Voli¹⁰, Annafranca Farfalla¹¹, Manuela Curcio¹², Francesca Iemma¹³, Fiore Pasquale Nicoletta¹⁴, Ahmed A El-Gendy¹⁵, Gerardo F Goya¹⁶, Silke Hampel¹⁷

Affiliations

¹ Leibniz Institute of Solid State and Material Research Dresden, 01069 Dresden, Germany. samim@hebron.edu.
² College of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences, Hebron University, Hebron 00970, Palestine. samim@hebron.edu.
³ Leibniz Institute of Solid State and Material Research Dresden, 01069 Dresden, Germany. giuseppe.cirillo@unical.it.
⁴ Department of Pharmacy, Health and Nutritional Sciences, University of Calabria, Rende (CS), 87036 Rende, Italy. giuseppe.cirillo@unical.it.
⁵ Children's Cancer Institute, Lowy Cancer Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, Sydney 2031, Australia. OVittorio@ccia.org.au.
⁶ ARC Centre of Excellence for Convergent BioNano Science and Technology, Australian Centre for NanoMedicine, UNSW Sydney, Sydney 2052, Australia. OVittorio@ccia.org.au.
⁷ School of Women's and Children's Health, Faculty of Medicine, UNSW Sydney, Sydney 2052, Australia. OVittorio@ccia.org.au.
⁸ Children's Cancer Institute, Lowy Cancer Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, Sydney 2031, Australia. EValli@ccia.org.au.
⁹ School of Women's and Children's Health, Faculty of Medicine, UNSW Sydney, Sydney 2052, Australia. EValli@ccia.org.au.
¹⁰ Children's Cancer Institute, Lowy Cancer Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, Sydney 2031, Australia. FVoli@ccia.org.au.
¹¹ Department of Pharmacy, Health and Nutritional Sciences, University of Calabria, Rende (CS), 87036 Rende, Italy. annafranca.farfalla@gmail.com.
¹² Department of Pharmacy, Health and Nutritional Sciences, University of Calabria, Rende (CS), 87036 Rende, Italy. manuela.curcio@unical.it.
¹³ Department of Pharmacy, Health and Nutritional Sciences, University of Calabria, Rende (CS), 87036 Rende, Italy. francesca.iemma@unical.it.
¹⁴ Department of Pharmacy, Health and Nutritional Sciences, University of Calabria, Rende (CS), 87036 Rende, Italy. fiore.nicoletta@unical.it.
¹⁵ Department of Physics, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX 79968, USA. aelgendy@utep.edu.
¹⁶ Institute of Nanoscience of Aragon (INA) & Department of Condensed Matter Physics, University of Zaragoza, 50018 Zaragoza, Spain. goya@unizar.es.
¹⁷ Leibniz Institute of Solid State and Material Research Dresden, 01069 Dresden, Germany. s.hampel@ifw-dresden.de.

Abstract

Selective vectorization of Cisplatin (CisPt) to Glioblastoma U87 cells was exploited by the fabrication of a hybrid nanocarrier composed of magnetic γ-Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles and nanographene oxide (NGO). The magnetic component, obtained by annealing magnetite Fe₃O₄ and characterized by XRD measurements, was combined with NGO sheets prepared via a modified Hummer's method. The morphological and thermogravimetric analysis proved the effective binding of γ-Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles onto NGO layers. The magnetization measured under magnetic fields up to 7 Tesla at room temperature revealed superparamagnetic-like behavior with a maximum value of M_S = 15 emu/g and coercivity H_C ≈ 0 Oe within experimental error. The nanohybrid was found to possess high affinity towards CisPt, and a rather slow fractional release profile of 80% after 250 h. Negligible toxicity was observed for empty nanoparticles, while the retainment of CisPt anticancer activity upon loading into the carrier was observed, together with the possibility to spatially control the drug delivery at a target site.

Keywords: cisplatin; glioblastoma; graphene oxide; maghemite; magnetic targeting.

Abstract

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