Hollow mesoporous organosilica nanoparticles reduced graphene oxide based nanosystem for multimodal image-guided photothermal/photodynamic/chemo combinational therapy triggered by near-infrared.

Developing a nanosystem that can perform multimodal imaging-guided combination therapy is highly desirable but challenging. In this study, we introduced multifunctional nanoparticles (NPs) consisting of graphene oxide-grafted hollow mesoporous organosilica loaded with the drug doxorubicin (DOX) and photosensitizers tetraphenylporphyrin (TPP). These NPs were encapsulated by thermosensitive liposomes that release their contents once the temperature exceeds a certain threshold. Metal oxide NPs grown on the graphene oxide (GO) surface served multiple roles, including enhancing photothermal efficiency, acting as contrast agents to improve magnetic resonance imaging, increasing the sensitivity and specificity of photoacoustic imaging, and catalysing hydrogen peroxide for the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). When locally injected, the HMONs-rNGO@Fe3 O4 /MnOx@FA/DOX/TPP NPs effectively enriched in subcutaneous Hela cell tumour of mice. The photothermal/photodynamic/chemo combination therapy triggered by near-infrared (NIR) successfully suppressed the tumour without noticeable side effects. This study presented a unique approach to develop multimodal imaging-guided combination therapy for cancer.

Epitaxial substitution of metal iodides for low-temperature growth of two-dimensional metal chalcogenides.

The integration of various two-dimensional (2D) materials on wafers enables a more-than-Moore approach for enriching the functionalities of devices1-3. On the other hand, the additive growth of 2D materials to form heterostructures allows construction of materials with unconventional properties. Both may be achieved by materials transfer, but often suffer from mechanical damage or chemical contamination during the transfer. The direct growth of high-quality 2D materials generally requires high temperatures, hampering the additive growth or monolithic incorporation of different 2D materials. Here we report a general approach of growing crystalline 2D layers and their heterostructures at a temperature below 400 °C. Metal iodide (MI, where M = In, Cd, Cu, Co, Fe, Pb, Sn and Bi) layers are epitaxially grown on mica, MoS2 or WS2 at a low temperature, and the subsequent low-barrier-energy substitution of iodine with chalcogens enables the conversion to at least 17 different 2D crystalline metal chalcogenides. As an example, the 2D In2S3 grown on MoS2 at 280 °C exhibits high photoresponsivity comparable with that of the materials grown by conventional high-temperature vapour deposition (~700-1,000 °C). Multiple 2D materials have also been sequentially grown on the same wafer, showing a promising solution for the monolithic integration of different high-quality 2D materials.

Vertically Coated Graphene Oxide Micro-Well Arrays for Highly Efficient Cancer Spheroid Formation and Drug Screening.

Research on the 3D culturing of cancer cells that better mimic in vivo solid tumors is important for efficient drug screening. Herein, a new platform that effectively facilitates the formation of cancer spheroids for anticancer drug screening is reported. Cytophilic graphene oxide (GO), when selectively coated on the sidewalls of micro-wells fabricated from a cell-adhesion-resistive polymer, is found to efficiently initiates distinct donut-like formation of cancer cell spheroids. Scanning electron microscopy and Raman mapping are used to analyze vertically coated GO micropatterns (vGO-MPs) of different sizes (100-250 µm) on polymer platforms, and human liver cancer cells (HepG2), as a model cancer, are seeded on these platforms. Remarkably, the 150 µm-sized platform is found to easily and rapidly generate 3D spheroids in the absence of cell-adhesion proteins. In addition, owing to the unique characteristics of GO, vGO-MPs are highly stable for long periods of time (≈1 month), even under harsh conditions (>70 °C). Moreover, the anticancer effects of two drugs (hydroxyurea and cisplatin) and the potential anticancer compound (curcumin) on HepG2 cells are demonstrated by simply measuring decreases in spheroid sizes. Hence, this new platform is highly promising as a cancer spheroid-forming material for rapid drug screening.