Graphene nanoribbons are internalized by human primary immune cell subpopulations maintaining a safety profile: A high-dimensional pilot study by single-cell mass cytometry

Fuoco, Claudia; Luan, Xiangfeng; Fusco, Laura; Riccio, Federica; Giuliani, Giulio; Lin, Hazel; Orecchioni, Marco; Martín, Cristina; Feng, Xinliang; Mai, Yiyong; Bianco, Alberto; Delogu, Lucia Gemma

doi:10.1016/j.apmt.2022.101593

Cited by 1 publication

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“…The present study demonstrated GO nanosheets functionalized with BSA in primary cultures of human leukocytes, derived from peripheral blood, exerted no cytotoxic effect in terms of viability, ROS production, and functionality. These effects are particularly interesting in view of the extensive literature showing the great potential of graphene derived composites as safe drug delivery platforms [31] and reporting on their cytotoxic effects, especially in relation to the immune system [32]. Many studies of graphene cytotoxic effects in tumor cell lines use large amounts of nanomaterials which, in our opinion, are not needed.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biological Effects of Small Sized Graphene Oxide Nanosheets on Human Leukocytes

Aventaggiato,

Valentini,

Caissutti

et al. 2024

Biomedicines

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Since the discovery of graphene, there has been a wide range of the literature dealing with its versatile structure and easy binding of biomolecules as well as its large loading capacity. In the emerging field of immunotherapy, graphene and its derivatives have potential uses as drug delivery platforms directly into tumour sites or as adjuvants in cancer vaccines, as they are internalized by monocytes which in turn may activate adaptive anti-tumoral immune responses. In this study, we expose cells of the innate immune system and a human acute monocytic leukemia cell line (THP-1) to low doses of small-sized GO nanosheets functionalized with bovine serum albumin (BSA) and fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC), to study their acute response after internalization. We show by flow cytometry, uptake in cells of GO-BSA-FITC reaches 80% and cell viability and ROS production are both unaffected by exposure to nanoparticles. On the contrary, GO-BSA nanosheets seem to have an inhibitory effect on ROS production, probably due to their antioxidant properties. We also provided results on chemotaxis of macrophages derived from peripheral blood monocytes treated with GO-BSA. In conclusion, we showed the size of nanosheets, the concentration used and the degree of functionalization were important factors for biocompatibility of GO in immune cells. Its low cytotoxicity and high adaptability to the cells of the innate immune system make it a good candidate for deployment in immunotherapy, in particular for delivering protein antigens to monocytes which activate adaptive immunity.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%