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Updated: Jan 30, 2026
08:57
Scalable Syntheses of Graphene Oxide and Reduced Graphene Oxide using Cascade Design Oxidation and Highly Basic Reduction Reactions
Published on: July 3, 2025
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Graphene Oxide as a Multifunctional Platform for Intracellular Delivery, Imaging, and Cancer Sensing
E Campbell1, Md Tanvir Hasan1, Christine Pho1
1Department of Physics and Astronomy, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX, 76129, USA.
Scientific Reports
|January 25, 2019
Summary
Graphene oxide (GO) shows potential for biomedical uses, acting as a fluorescent sensor for cancer cells and a platform for drug delivery. Its unique pH-dependent fluorescence allows for imaging and sensing of acidic tumor environments.
Area of Science:
- Biomedical Engineering
- Nanotechnology
- Materials Science
Background:
- Graphene oxide (GO) is a versatile nanomaterial with significant potential in biomedical applications.
- Its properties, including pH-dependent fluorescence, water solubility, and functionalization capabilities, make it suitable for advanced applications.
- GO can be modified to enhance cellular uptake and reduce cytotoxicity, enabling effective use in biological systems.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore the potential of graphene oxide (GO) as a multifunctional platform for therapeutic delivery, biological imaging, and cancer sensing.
- To investigate GO's pH-dependent fluorescence for molecular imaging and pH-sensing capabilities.
- To assess GO's cellular internalization, clearance, and cytotoxicity for biomedical applications.
Main Methods:
- Modification of GO physical properties to enhance cellular internalization.
- Assessment of GO cellular uptake and fluorescence-based clearance in HeLa cells.
- Utilizing the pH-dependence of GO emission for sensing acidic extracellular environments in cancer cells (HeLa, MCF-7) versus healthy cells (HEK-293).
Main Results:
- GO nanoflakes demonstrated low cytotoxicity (<15%) at imaging concentrations (15 μg/mL).
- GO rapidly internalized into HeLa cells, with 70% fluorescence-based clearance at 24 h.
- Diminishing green/red fluorescence intensity ratios were observed in cancer cells compared to healthy cells, indicating potential for cancer microenvironment sensing.
Conclusions:
- Graphene oxide (GO) shows promise as a novel multifunctional platform for drug delivery and biological imaging.
- GO's pH-dependent fluorescence can be leveraged for non-invasive optical sensing of cancer microenvironments.
- Further research into GO's capabilities could lead to advancements in cancer diagnostics and therapeutics.
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