Abstract
The delivery of bioactive molecules into cells has broad applications in biology and medicine. Polymer-modified graphene oxide (GO) has recently emerged as a de facto noncovalent vehicle for hydrophobic drugs. Here, we investigate a different approach using native GO to deliver hydrophilic molecules by co-incubation in culture. GO adsorption and delivery were systematically studied with a library of 15 molecules synthesized with Gd(III) labels to enable quantitation. Amines were revealed to be a key chemical group for adsorption, while delivery was shown to be quantitatively predictable by molecular adsorption, GO sedimentation, and GO size. GO co-incubation was shown to enhance delivery by up to 13-fold and allowed for a 100-fold increase in molecular incubation concentration compared to the alternative of nanoconjugation. When tested in the application of Gd(III) cellular MRI, these advantages led to a nearly 10-fold improvement in sensitivity over the state-of-the-art. GO co-incubation is an effective method of cellular delivery that is easily adoptable by researchers across all fields.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 10168-10177 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | ACS nano |
Volume | 8 |
Issue number | 10 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Oct 28 2014 |
Keywords
- adsorption
- cell culture
- delivery vehicle
- gadolinium
- graphene oxide
- sedimentation
- surface interaction
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Materials Science(all)
- Engineering(all)
- Physics and Astronomy(all)