Graphene oxide as a nanocarrier for loading and delivery of medicinal drugs and as a biosensor for detection of serum albumin

The interaction of graphene oxide (GO), a medicinal drug (10-hydroxy camptothecin (HCPT)), and bovine serum albumin (BSA) was investigated with the aim of developing a method for the analysis of serum albumin proteins. It was demonstrated that HCPT could be readily loaded onto GO via the π–π stacking interaction, and the delivery of HCPT to BSA was improved in the presence of GO; this, in turn, facilitated the binding interaction of HCPT and BSA. Chemometrics methods, multivariate curve resolution-alternating least squares (MCR-ALS) and parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC), were applied to resolve spectral data, and this assisted in the elucidation of the above interaction. GO was found to enhance the fluorescence response of HCPT to BSA, and thus, a low cost fluorescence bio-sensing platform was developed for fluorescence-enhanced detection of BSA based on GO. The satisfactory analytical performance of this biosensor for BSA was attributed to the structure and electronic properties of GO.

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► Studied the loading interaction of HCPT (10-hydroxy camptothecin) on graphene oxide.
► The nature of the interaction between graphene oxide, HCPT and BSA was investigated.
► Studied the HCPT–GO–BSA system with three-way fluorescence spectroscopy and chemometrics.
► A novel BSA biosensor was constructed with improved sensitivity and selectivity.