Development of graphene oxide based nanomaterials for cancer therapy

• Autor(a) principal: Sousa, Ana Rita Lima de
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.6/9771
• topic: Ácido Hialurónico; Efeito Fototérmico; Materiais 2d; Química Ecológica; Terapia Direcionada; Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Médicas::Ciências Biomédicas

Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of death in the world, affecting mostly women. The most common treatments for this disease include radio- and chemo-therapies. However, these therapeutic approaches have a sub-optimal efficacy and can induce adverse side effects to patients. In this way, there is an urgent demand for the development of novel breast cancer treatments. To improve the breast cancer treatment, researchers are developing new therapeutic approaches. In particular, photothermal therapy (PTT) mediated by nanomaterials has captured the attention of researchers and clinicians. This type of therapy takes advantage from the physicochemical and optical properties of some light-responsive nanostructures. These can accumulate preferentially in the tumor zone, and induce, after external irradiation with near infrared (NIR) light, a temperature increase that can damage cancer cells. In this thesis, reduced graphene oxide (rGO) was produced by using an environmentally-friendly method. Then rGO was functionalized with a novel hyaluronic acid (HA)-based amphiphilic polymer to be applied in targeted breast cancer PTT. HA was selected due to its hydrophilic character and targeting capacity to the CD44 receptors, which are overexpressed on breast cancer cells’ membrane. The obtained results revealed that the treatment of graphene oxide with L-ascorbic acid (3 mM) for 60 minutes at 80 °C is ideal considering the NIR absorption and the size distribution of the obtained materials. Then, rGO was functionalized with the HA-based amphiphilic polymer through non-covalent interactions. The functionalization of rGO improved its stability, cytocompatibility, and internalization by CD44 overexpressed by breast cancer cells, which indicates the targeting capacity of this nanoformulation. Furthermore, the on-demand PTT mediated by HA functionalized rGO induced cancer cells’ death, thereby confirming the potential of this nanoformulation for targeted breast cancer therapy.