Motilal Mathesh

Facile synthesis of graphene oxide hybrids bridged by copper ions for increased conductivity

In this article, we report a facile method for preparing graphene oxide (GO) hybrid materials consisting of copper ions (Cu2+) complexed with GO, where Cu2+ acted as bridges connecting GO sheets. The method of film formation is based on cross-linking GO using Cu2+ followed by filtration onto nanoporous supports. This binding can be rationalized due to the chemical interaction between the functional groups on GO and the metal ion. We observed that there was a decrease in charge transfer resistance through electrochemical study. It suggests that the presence of metal ions in GO films could introduce new energy levels along the electron transport pathway and open up possible conduction channels. We also found that the hybrid graphene film assembled with Cu2+ dramatically decreases resistance through flash light reduction.

Graphene‐Oxide‐Based Enzyme Nanoarchitectonics for Substrate Channeling

The controlled spatial organization or compartmentalization of multi-enzyme cascade reactions to transfer a substrate from one enzyme to another for substrate channeling on scaffolds has sparked increasing interest in recent years. Here, we use graphene oxides to study the dependence of the activity of cascade reactions in a closely packed, randomly immobilized enzyme system on a 2 D scaffold. We first observe that the hydrophobicity of graphene oxides and various enzyme architectures for co-immobilized systems are important attributes for achieving high product-conversion rates. A transient time close to 0 s can be achieved if enzymes are randomly immobilized close to one another, owing to direct molecular channeling. This contributes to overcoming complications regarding control of the spatial arrangement of the enzymes. Furthermore, a fabricated bienzyme paper can be used for glucose detection with high stability, reusability, and enhanced substrate channeling. Our findings provide new guidance for enzyme orientation on 2 D scaffolds, which may be extrapolated to other multienzyme cascade systems.

Transforming doxorubicin into a cancer stem cell killer via EpCAM aptamer-mediated delivery

Chemotherapy-resistant cancer stem cells (CSCs) are a major obstacle to the effective treatment of many forms of cancer. To overcome CSC chemo-resistance, we developed a novel system by conjugating a CSC-targeting EpCAM aptamer with doxorubicin (Apt-DOX) to eliminate CSCs. Incubation of Apt-DOX with colorectal cancer cells resulted in high concentration and prolonged retention of DOX in the nuclei. Treatment of tumour-bearing xenograft mice with Apt-DOX resulted in at least 3-fold more inhibition of tumour growth and longer survival as well as a 30-fold lower frequency of CSC and a prolonged longer tumourigenic latency compared with those receiving the same dose of free DOX. Our data demonstrate that a CSC-targeting aptamer is able to transform a conventional chemotherapeutic agent into a CSC-killer to overcome drug resistance in solid tumours.