Many people have had the painful experience of oral ulcers. The squamous cell that is “causing trouble” in the oral cavity is a malignant tumor, which is the most malignant and most harmful tumor of the head and neck. The occurrence of cases accounts for about 50% of the head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Oral squamous cell carcinoma can cause loss of oral function. When it develops further, it can also cause malodor or distant metastasis, and it can also cause local ulceration, affect the quality of life, and ultimately endanger the life of the patient.

In recent years, the incidence of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is high. Surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy are currently commonly used treatment methods. At present, traditional surgical treatment accompanied by chemotherapy is the main treatment method. In addition to the risks of surgery, it often causes greater damage to the patient’s salivary glands, leading to dry mouth, speech disorders, and eating disorders.

In response to this problem, a research team from Shanxi Medical University has developed a more bio-friendly treatment plan and released the research results under the title “Graphene oxide loaded with tumor-targeted peptide and anti-cancer drugs for cancer target therapy” In “Nature”.

Oral squamous cell carcinoma is a high incidence area of ​​oral squamous cell carcinoma in recent years. Surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy are currently commonly used treatment methods. At present, traditional surgical treatment supplemented with chemotherapy is the main treatment method. Clinical chemotherapeutic drugs generally have a low cell uptake rate and have certain toxic and side effects on normal cells, which severely limits their clinical application. Nano drug delivery systems have attracted the attention of many researchers. Graphene oxide has several outstanding features in this respect, including large specific surface area, high drug loading rate, pH response and EPR effect. Therefore, they are suitable for integration into a series of delivery systems for cancer treatment.

The surface and edges of graphene oxide are rich in oxygen-containing functional groups, which is conducive to surface functionalization. In order to improve its stability and biocompatibility in aqueous solutions, polyethylene glycol (PEG) is often used for functional treatment. It is an excellent biological material that can be used in biomedical applications, especially for drug delivery, while reducing its non-specific absorption of biomolecules and cells.

In this study, researchers from Shanxi Medical University synthesized an NGO-PEG nanocarrier and tested its cytotoxic effects on CAL-27, SCC-25 and human normal oral keratinocytes (HOK). Based on previous research, antibodies, peptides, aptamers, etc. are often used as targets for surface modification of nano-scale graphene oxide. HN-1 peptide (TSPLNIHNGQKL) is a 12 amino acid peptide recently isolated from a phage display library. According to reports, this small peptide is specific to OSCC cells and can penetrate tumor tissues. Because DOX@NGO-PEG lacks tumor targeting activity and poor internalization of tumor cells, the efficacy of drug delivery is limited. For the first time, we introduced HN-1 into the drug delivery system. Our research shows that DOX@NGO-PEG-HN-1 has tumor-targeting and PH-responsive drug release properties.

In short, Shanxi Medical University has successfully produced a PH-sensitive cancer combined treatment system DOX@NGO-PEG-HN-1. To achieve DOX@NGO-PEG-HN-1 in tumor tissues, due to the hydrogen bond interaction between graphene oxide and DOX and the weakened π-π conjugation, DOX can be quickly released from the system. The experimental results of cytotoxicity prove that DOX@NGO-PEG-HN-1 can be simply absorbed by tumor cells and exhibit a synergistic effect. This drug-carrying system has great application potential in the treatment of tumors.