Evaluating cellular responses of lung and liver cells to graphene oxide functionalized poly(propylene)imine and polyamidoamine dendrimers: insights for biomedical applications

10 million people die of different forms of cancer every year. One of the largest problems is the great variability between patients in drug efficacy, that is partly due to the low specificity of cancer drugs and their consequent severe side effects, which make it difficult to avoid damage to healthy tissues. To address these challenges, several targeted therapies and drug delivery strategies have been developed that can selectively act on cancer cells to improve efficacy and reduce toxicity. One promising approach is the use of graphene or graphene oxide-based materials for this purpose. Here we investigated a graphene oxide (GOX) composite material functionalized with 2 different dendrimers: poly(propylene)imine (DAB-Am-16) and polyamidoamine (PAMAM). These dendrimers were covalently bound to GOX via amide formation between any peripheral amine group of the dendrimers and the carboxyl groups present in GOX. We explored the cellular responses of the materials on BEAS-2B (non-tumoral), LC-HK2 and HepG2 cancer cells. We investigated cell viability, morphological changes in the cytoskeleton organization, the spatial interaction between the materials and the cell nuclei. Our results showed that GOX materials reduced cell viability at higher concentrations, and cellular exposure to these materials was associated with cytoskeletal reorganization, including reduced cytoplasmic and nuclear areas. These findings highlight their potential as promising candidates for biomedical applications.