Understanding the role of graphene oxide in the capture and eradication of circulating tumor cells

The capture of circulating cancer cells on functional biomaterials is expected to control metastatic spread ofa tumor, which is related to good probability containing the progression of disease burden. (1) Thephysicochemical characteristics of a biomaterial surface highly affect cell recruitment and adhesion, which isof great importance in such applications. Here, we designed a poly(caprolactone)-based nanocompsitescaffold, henceforth PCLMF-GO, to simultaneously recruit and kill circulating cancer cells by tuningphysicochemical features of the scaffold surface through nitrogen plasma activation and hetero-phasegraphene oxide (GO) covalent functionalization. Nitrogen plasma activation was used for scaffoldengineering to provide functionalization of the scaffold surface with reactive amines, even if keeping bulkproperties of the virgin polymeric material, and to enhance cell adhesion properties of hydrophobicpolymers.(2) In this work, we demonstrate plasma-induced microfiber surface functionalization couplingDSC, FT-IR, SEM, AFM, XPS and MS-NMR analyses, corroborating the starting hypothesis that GO wascovalently bonded at the scaffold surface. Surface immobilization of GO implies clever cell adhesion andproliferation, promoting the selective in vitro recruitment of breast cancer cells (MCF-7) instead offibroblasts (HDFa). We also display that GO deposition, thanks to the high near-infrared (NIR) absorbance,enable the discrete photothermal eradication of the captured cancer cells in situ (≈ 98%). Moreover, thistechnology can be used in frontier medical practices to capture circulating cancer cells in patients and, afterproper ex vivo propagation, to develop biomarkers and tailor-made anticancer therapies.1. Griffith, OL et al. (2011) Breast Cancer Res. 13: 2302. Lopez, L. C. et al. (2007) Plasma Process. Polym. 4:S402–S405