Transferrin-Mediated Glioblastoma Cell Targeting of Hexagonal Boron Nitrides

Hexagonal boron nitrides (hBNs) are promising nanomaterials with their high boron content, non-toxic nature in inactive form, high chemical stability, and mechanical strength. However, their hydrophobic nature limits their use in biomedical applications. Therefore, the hBNs have been functionalized...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Plasmonics (Norwell, Mass.) Mass.), 2020-12, Vol.15 (6), p.1543-1549
Main Authors: Emanet, Melis, Şen, Özlem, Çulha, Mustafa
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biochemistry
Biocompatibility
Biological and Medical Physics
Biomedical materials
Biophysics
Biotechnology
Boron
Boron nitride
Brain cancer
Cancer
Cellular structure
Chemistry
Chemistry and Materials Science
Nanomaterials
Nanotechnology
Stability
Transferrin
Tumors
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Summary:Hexagonal boron nitrides (hBNs) are promising nanomaterials with their high boron content, non-toxic nature in inactive form, high chemical stability, and mechanical strength. However, their hydrophobic nature limits their use in biomedical applications. Therefore, the hBNs have been functionalized with DSPE-PEG-NH 2 to increase their colloidal stability and circulation time in bloodstream as well as to provide active sites on their surface for further functionalization with tumor-targeting agents. Then, further functionalization of the DSPE-PEG-hBNs with transferrin (TfR) was applied for selective targeting of transferrin receptors overexpressed by brain tumor cells. After that, the cellular interaction and biocompatibility of the structure was investigated on glioblastoma multiforme (U87MG) cancer cells. The cellular investigations showed that transferrin functionalization of the DSPE-PEG-hBNs increased their uptake by glioblastoma cancer cells and decreased cell viability due to the enhanced cellular internalization. Based on the data, the TfR-DSPE-PEG-hBNs are promising agents to evaluate them in drug carrying and targeting applications. Graphical Abstract
ISSN:1557-1955
1557-1963
DOI:10.1007/s11468-020-01206-7