Synthesis and stability analysis of folic acid-graphene oxide nanoparticles for drug delivery and targeted cancer therapies

Cancer is the growth and proliferation of damage-ending cells in an uncontrolled or abnormal way.Today, it takes place among the most important health problems around the world and in ourcountry. Surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy are the main treatment methods in cancertreatment. The development of resistance to chemotherapeutic medicines has led scientists toinvestigate this issue as well as the drug’s ability to reach the targeted tumor site and destroyingcancer cells in addition to normal cells. The production of various nanostructures for anticancerdrug development has been one of the most important areas of nanomedicine. Thus, in the presentresearch, the improved Hummers’ method was employed for the synthesis of graphene oxidenanoparticle (NGO), and it was activated by the folic acid (FA) antibody to increase targetingability after attachment of the drug to the nanostructure systems. SEM, FTIR, XRD, UV/Visspectroscopy, and zeta potential analysis were performed for characterization of the products. Thehighest absorbance of the FA-NGO/DIW nanostructures produced at the concentration of 0.01mg/ml-0.05 mg/ml synthesized by the Hummers’ method and in the UV/Vis spectra, peaks at 232nm and 270 nm corresponds to NGO-DIW and FA-NGO/DIW, respectively. The zeta potentialvalue above 35 mV was obtained in all measurements, and the NGO-DIW and NGO-FA-DIWsamples maintained stability for days. These findings are consistent with the few studies in theliterature, and this study will guide future studies in which nanoparticle systems will be directedto the target by binding chemotherapeutic drugs.