Molybdenum disulfide/graphene oxide nanocomposites show favorable lung targeting and enhanced drug loading/tumor-killing efficacy with improved biocompatibility

Abstract

Selective targeting plus optimal biocompatibility is still a big challenge in nanomedicine. Although many nanomaterials including graphene oxide (GO) and molybdenum disulfide (MoS 2 ) have been tested for this purpose, these materials possess both favorable features and drawbacks, which hampers their further development. Herein, we prepared MoS 2 /GO nanocomposites that manifested excellent dispersity in aqueous solutions and revealed acceptable biocompatibility in vitro and in vivo. Importantly, MoS 2 /GO displayed a novel feature to selectively target the lung. In other words, MoS 2 /GO manifested a pronounced tendency of localization towards the lung comparable to GO, offering a 'guided missile' effect in targeting the lung. Furthermore, MoS 2 /GO composites possessed enhanced drug loading capacity together with reinforced tumor-killing efficacy against cancer cells that have the propensity to metastasize to the lung. Importantly, MoS 2 /GO composites remarkably repressed metastatic tumor growth of B16 murine melanoma cancer cells in lungs of mice. Mechanistically, MoS 2 /GO was demonstrated to reveal compromised reactions towards macrophages at the nano-bio interface relative to GO, which is accountable for the interaction and the uptake of nanosheets by macrophages associated with phagocytosis and macrophagic activation. Considered together, our findings established new MoS 2 /GO nanocomposites with multi-functionalities including selective lung targeting, favorable drug loading capacity, elevated tumor killing efficacy and improved biocompatibility. Our study opens an avenue for MoS 2 /GO nanocomposites in cancer nanotheranostics.

A porous reduced graphene oxide/chitosan-based nanocarrier as a delivery system of doxorubicin

“…Moreover, a hydrophobic effect contributed to the interaction between GO and DOX. 33 In the present study, we reported a novel nanohybrid formed by CS-prGO and DOX and characterized it using cyclic voltammetry, FE-SEM, and FTIR and UV-Vis spectroscopy methods. Furthermore, the loading and release of DOX were investigated by UV-Vis spectroscopy.…”

Drug-loaded dual targeting graphene oxide-based molecularly imprinted composite and recognition of carcino-embryonic antigen

“…1,2 Therefore, GO may have promising applications in drug delivery. 3 For example, Xu's group reported a multifunctional theranostic nanoplatform based on graphene oxide (GO) and MnWO 4 . GO, used as the carrier, possessed a high loading capacity for the anticancer drug doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX) due to noncovalent forces and the drug release could be triggered by a lower pH value.…”

Bio-transformation of Graphene Oxide in Lung Fluids Significantly Enhances Its Photothermal Efficacy

“…GO contains abundant reactive surface functional groups, and likely undergo significant alterations to the 3S factors (size, shape and surface chemistry) once encountering ions and various biomolecules in the biological media 7 - 8 . Thus, after being administrated in vivo , transformation in biological media may greatly alter their predesigned properties, leading to loss of functional groups, oxidation and reduction of the materials, and subsequently either enhances or hinders their intended efficacies in biomedical applications 7 , 9 - 10 .…”

“…administration 20 . In a recent study, we found that MoS 2 /GO nanocomposites manifested selective lung targeting owing to GO's lung-targeting property, resulting in enhanced tumor killing efficacy 8 . The tendency of GO materials in targeting lung warrants a thorough understanding of their potential bio-transformation in the lung and the consequences, which have not been studied.…”