Few‐Layer Graphene Kills Selectively Tumor Cells from Myelomonocytic Leukemia Patients

Abstract

In the cure of cancer, a major cause of today's mortality, chemotherapy is the most common treatment, though serious frequent challenges are encountered by current anticancer drugs. We discovered that few‐layer graphene (FLG) dispersions have a specific killer action on monocytes, showing neither toxic nor activation effects on other immune cells. We confirmed the therapeutic application of graphene on an aggressive type of cancer that is myelomonocytic leukemia, where the monocytes are in their malignant form. We demonstrated that graphene has the unique ability to target and boost specifically the necrosis of monocytic cancer cells. Moreover, the comparison between FLG and a common chemotherapeutic drug, etoposide, confirmed the higher specificity and toxicity of FLG. Since current chemotherapy treatments of leukemia still cause serious problems, these findings open the way to new and safer therapeutic approaches.

Few layer graphene does not affect the function and the autophagic activity of primary lymphocytes

“…In fact their screening on different human immune cell populations did not reveal any FLG mediated toxicity nor activation of T cells. 19 Similar observations were made on natural killer cells, on dendritic cells and on B cells. The observed effect was strictly restricted to monocytes.…”

“…Even though cross-species comparisons have been shown to vary between mouse and human, those are mainly at the developmental rather than the activation level. 19 However, in terms of B cell subsets, they can change depending on the compartments studied, with a higher proportion of mature B cells and some transitional 1 (T1) B cells in the periphery, while the spleen is populated by mature, T1 and T2 B cell subsets. In this context, we studied the effect of FLG on isolated B cells rather than on total PBMCs, composed of many different immune cells.…”

“…-4 -Only few and quite recent studies have been focused on understanding the impact of graphene or FLG on mammalian cells, and most of them were investigating the impact of graphene on cell lines with the exception of a study by Russier et al that showed that FLG was able to selectively kill pathogenic monocytes from myelomonocytic leukemia patients. [17][18][19] However, to the best of our knowledge, no study has been looking into the impact of FLG on primary lymphocytes and on their autophagic activity. As these cells are key players in adaptive immunity, it appears essential to understand how FLG could interact with them.…”

Stimulation of bone formation by monocyte-activator functionalized graphene oxidein vivo

“…[73,74,75] Recently, few layers graphene was shown to induce necrotic pathways in neoplastic monocytes partly through the interaction with TLR2. [76] To determine whether TLR2 and TLR4 are also required for the activation of monocytes by maGO-CaP, cells were pre-treated with anti-TLR2 and anti-TLR4 antibodies before incubation with maGO-CaP (50 µg/ml). In TRL4 pretreated monocytes, we found a decrease of the expression of CD69, CD25 and CD80 compared to TLR2 pre-treated samples (Figure S7B).…”

Capitalization of Graphene/Chitosan Nanocomposites as Intriguing Vehicles for Targeted Anti‐Cancer Drug Delivery

“…Despite untreated few-layered graphene has shown outstanding therapeutic action against some aggressive types of cancer (e.g., chronic myelomonocytic leukemia), [42] the most common approaches include the use of the most well-known graphene derivatives, graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO), as ideal drug delivery platforms. [33] These graphene-based materials can form homogeneous and highly stable aqueous dispersions, [43,44] contrary to their behavior in biological solutions, where they may rapidly aggregate, while their dispersibility can further deteriorate when loading drugs.…”