Abstract

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-NH₂ 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 was performed for selective targeting of transferrin receptors overexpressed by brain tumor cells. Then, the cellular interaction and biocompatibility of the structure was investigated on glioblastoma multiform (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 TrF-DSPE-PEG-hBNs are promising agents to evaluate them as drug carrying and targeting applications.

Keywords: cytotoxicity, drug delivery, DSPE-PEG, hexagonal boron nitride, transferrin

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Emanet, M.; Şen, Ö.; Culha, M. Beilstein Arch. 2019, 201977. doi:10.3762/bxiv.2019.77.v1

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