Graphene Quantum Dot Photothermal Cancer Therapy with MoS2 and Tm
Abstract
Photothermal cancer therapy (PPT) is being widely studied for cancer treatment using many different radiation wavelengths. For human treatment the radiation wavelengths and power density needs to be safe for healthy cells. Near-Infrared light can serve this purpose well as it is not strongly absorbed by biological tissue and near-IR absorbing nanoparticles localized to the tumor can be used to selectively treat those. In this work we are creating doped graphene quantum dots with a variety of dopants that absorb in near-infrared and can decrease the viability of cancer cells using near infrared radiation wavelengths not affecting healthy cells not treated with these nanoparticles. In this study after screening different dopants, molybdenum disulfide nitrogen doped graphene quantum dots (MoS2-NGQDs), thulium nitrogen doped graphene quantum dots (Tm-NGQDs), and graphene quantum dots (GQDs) were selected as most near-IR absorbing and caused highest temperature increase of several degrees in solution upon 808 and 980 nm laser irradiation. Those were tested for PTT in vitro in HeLa cells with 808 nm laser radiation. The PTT effect is determined by assessing the viability of the cells after irradiation which showed that near-IR treatment of HeLa cells with MoS2 and Tm were not statistically significant while GQDs were. With these results we can see that GQDs are a viable candidate for further study and future in vivo PPT testing.
