Graphene Oxide Nanoparticles: A Genotoxic Risk for Patients with Lung Cancer, COPD and Asthma

Abstract

The use of graphene oxide (GO) nanomaterials (NMs) has grown significantly over the last few decades because of their
biomedical uses in anti-cancer medication delivery. Because of their distinct physicochemical characteristics and favorable
surface chemistry, which includes unbound surface functional groups that facilitate covalent bonding with organic molecules like DNA and RNA, GO NMs are great options for drug delivery nanocarriers. There are worries regarding their genotoxicity despite their growing use in biomedical applications. The impact of GO NMs on DNA has been the subject of relatively few published studies on humans, much less those with chronic lung diseases. The effects of commercial GO (15–20 sheets; 4–10% edge-oxidized; 1 mg/ml) in vitro are examined for the first time in this study. Specifically, DNA damage and other genotoxic endpoints are examined in whole blood and peripheral blood leucocytes (PBL) from both healthy individuals and patients with chronic pulmonary diseases, such as lung cancer, asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Following thorough characterization of commercial GO NMs, neutral red uptake (NRU) and dimethyl thiazolyl diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assays were used to perform cytotoxicity studies.. On the other hand, alkaline Comet and cytokinesis-blocked micronucleus (CBMN) assays were used to investigate genotoxicity (DNA damage and chromosome aberration parameters). According to our findings, cytotoxicity, genotoxicity, and chromosome abnormalities increased with concentration, and PBL from patients with lung cancer and COPD was more vulnerable to DNA damage than that of asthma patients and healthy controls. When designed to deliver drug payloads to cells for the treatment of cancer or COPD, GO NMs may play promising roles in drug delivery applications. However, the fact that exposed cells from healthy individuals had higher levels of cytotoxicity, genotoxicity, and chromosome instability parameters all biomarkers of cancer risk should raise concerns about public health, particularly when GO NMs are used as drug delivery nano-carriers in medical treatments and occupational exposures.