Enhanced Efficient NIR Photothermal Therapy Using Pleurocidin NRC-03 Peptide-Conjugated Dopamine-Modified Reduced Graphene Oxide Nanocomposite

Abstract

Breast cancer remains the leading cause of morbidity and mortality among women. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop effective treatments for breast cancer. Peptide-based therapies have been applied to treat various diseases, particularly cancer. Peptides that exhibit antimicrobial properties have recently been found to inactivate a wide range of cancer cells. However, some peptides degrade quickly in biological systems. Therefore, peptide-based nanotherapeutic approaches for cancer have been widely studied but are still in the early stages of research. The objective of this study is to synthesize a nanocomposite, NRC-03 peptide conjugated to polydopamine (pDA)-modified reduced graphene oxide (rGO), to facilitate the use of near-infrared light-activatable photothermal therapy to destroy breast tumor cells. The results show that immobilizing NRC-03 on the surface of dopamine-modified rGO can increase the stability of the NRC-03 peptide in a biological system. Furthermore, a burst release of the NRC-03 from NRC-03–pDA/rGO was observed under photothermal and tumor environment conditions. Overall, the results show that NRC-03–pDA/rGO combines the advantages of NRC-03, dopamine, and rGO, displaying excellent biocompatibility and anticancer properties; thus, it shows strong potential for augmenting photothermal therapy for breast cancer.