title: Ultrasmall reduced graphene oxide with high near-infrared absorbance for photothermal therapy.
abstract: We developed nanosized, reduced graphene oxide (nano-rGO) sheets with high near-infrared (NIR) light absorbance and biocompatibility for potential photothermal therapy. The single-layered nano-rGO sheets were ∼20 nm in average lateral dimension, functionalized noncovalently by amphiphilic PEGylated polymer chains to render stability in biological solutions and exhibited 6-fold higher NIR absorption than nonreduced, covalently PEGylated nano-GO. Attaching a targeting peptide bearing the Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) motif to nano-rGO afforded selective cellular uptake in U87MG cancer cells and highly effective photoablation of cells in vitro. In the absence of any NIR irradiation, nano-rGO exhibited little toxicity in vitro at concentrations well above the doses needed for photothermal heating. This work established nano-rGO as a novel photothermal agent due to its small size, high photothermal efficiency, and low cost as compared to other NIR photothermal agents including gold nanomaterials and carbon nanotubes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA.
authors.forename: Joshua T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Robinson
authors.forename: Scott M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Tabakman
authors.forename: Yongye
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.forename: Hailiang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Hernan Sanchez
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Casalongue
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Vinh
authors.forename: Hongjie
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Dai
mesh_terms: D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D005909:Glioblastoma / Q000628:therapy*; D006108:Graphite / Q000737:chemistry / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D007259:Infrared Rays; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D010087:Oxides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D017319:Photosensitizing Agents / Q000737:chemistry / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D010789:Phototherapy / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D010087:Oxides; D017319:Photosensitizing Agents; D006108:Graphite