Carboxymethyl chitosan-mediated synthesis of hyaluronic acid-targeted graphene oxide for cancer drug delivery

•Graphene oxide with functionalized modification for cancer drug delivery.•High drug loading capacity.•pH-responsive drug release behavior.•Specifically target delivery and effectively cells inhibition.

In order to enhance the efficiency and specificity of anticancer drug delivery and realize intelligently controlled release, a new drug carrier was developed. Graphene oxide (GO) was first modified with carboxymethyl chitosan (CMC), followed by conjugation of hyaluronic acid (HA) and fluorescein isothiocyanate (FI). The resulting GO–CMC–FI–HA conjugate was characterized and used as a carrier to encapsulate the anticancer drug doxorubicin (DOX) to study in vitro release behavior. The drug loading capacity is as high as 95% and the drug release rate under tumor cell microenvironment of pH 5.8 is significantly higher than that under physiological conditions of pH 7.4. Cell uptake studies show that the GO–CMC–FI–HA/DOX complex can specifically target cancer cells, which are over-expressing CD44 receptors and effectively inhibit their growth. The above results suggest that the functionalized graphene-based material has potential applications for targeted delivery and controlled release of anticancer drugs.