Biological Effects of Small Sized Graphene Oxide Nanosheets on Human Leukocytes

• Published in: Biomedicines Vol. 12; no. 2; p. 256
• Main Authors: Aventaggiato, Michele, Valentini, Federica, Caissutti, Daniela, Relucenti, Michela, Tafani, Marco, Misasi, Roberta, Zicari, Alessandra, Di Martino, Sara, Virtuoso, Sara, Neri, Anna, Mardente, Stefania
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 01.01.2024
• Subjects: Acute monocytic leukemia; Adaptability; Adaptive immunity; Adjuvants; Albumin; Analysis; Antigens; Biocompatibility; Bovine serum albumin; Cancer therapies; Cancer vaccines; Cell viability; Chemotaxis; Composite materials; Cytotoxicity; Drug delivery; Drug delivery systems; Drugs; Electron microscopes; Flow cytometry; Fluorescein isothiocyanate; Graphene; graphene oxide; Graphite; Immune response; Immune system; Immunotherapy; Innate immunity; Internalization; Leukemia; Leukocytes; Macrophages; Microscopy; Monocytes; Monocytic leukemia; Nanomaterials; Nanoparticles; nanosheets; Neutrophils; Penicillin; Peripheral blood; Pharmaceutical industry; Proteins; reactive oxygen species; Vehicles; United States; United Kingdom; Japan; St Louis Missouri; United Kingdom > UK; United States > US; Germany; graphene oxide; monocytes; macrophages; reactive oxygen species; tumour antigens; chemotaxis; nanosheets
• ISSN: 2227-9059; 2227-9059
• DOI: 10.3390/biomedicines12020256

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.