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Theranostics 2020; 10(12):5435-5488. doi:10.7150/thno.40068 This issue Cite

Review

Graphene and other 2D materials: a multidisciplinary analysis to uncover the hidden potential as cancer theranostics

Laura Fusco^1,2,3,#, Arianna Gazzi^1,2,#, Guotao Peng^4,#, Yuyoung Shin⁵, Sandra Vranic⁶, Davide Bedognetti³, Flavia Vitale⁷, Acelya Yilmazer^8,9, Xinliang Feng¹⁰, Bengt Fadeel^4,✉, Cinzia Casiraghi^5,✉, Lucia Gemma Delogu^2,10,11,✉

1. Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy.
2. Fondazione Istituto di Ricerca Pediatrica, Città della Speranza, Padua, Italy.
3. Cancer Program, Sidra Medicine, Doha, Qatar.
4. Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
5. Department of Chemistry, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
6. Nanomedicine Lab, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
7. Department of Neurology, Bioengineering, Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Center for Neuroengineering and Therapeutics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA; Center for Neurotrauma, Neurodegeneration, and Restoration, Corporal Michael J. Crescenz Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Philadelphia, USA.
8. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey.
9. Stem Cell Institute, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey.
10. Faculty of Chemistry and Food Chemistry, School of Science, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany.
11. Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Padua, Padua, Italy.
#These authors contributed equally to the present work.

✉ Corresponding author: luciagemma.deloguit; cinzia.casiraghiac.uk; bengt.fadeelse

Abstract

Cancer represents one of the main causes of death in the world; hence the development of more specific approaches for its diagnosis and treatment is urgently needed in clinical practice. Here we aim at providing a comprehensive review on the use of 2-dimensional materials (2DMs) in cancer theranostics. In particular, we focus on graphene-related materials (GRMs), graphene hybrids, and graphdiyne (GDY), as well as other emerging 2DMs, such as MXene, tungsten disulfide (WS2), molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), black phosphorus (BP), silicene, antimonene (AM), germanene, biotite (black mica), metal organic frameworks (MOFs), and others. The results reported in the scientific literature in the last ten years (>200 papers) are dissected here with respect to the wide variety of combinations of imaging methodologies and therapeutic approaches, including drug/gene delivery, photothermal/photodynamic therapy, sonodynamic therapy, and immunotherapy. We provide a unique multidisciplinary approach in discussing the literature, which also includes a detailed section on the characterization methods used to analyze the material properties, highlighting the merits and limitations of the different approaches. The aim of this review is to show the strong potential of 2DMs for use as cancer theranostics, as well as to highlight issues that prevent the clinical translation of these materials. Overall, we hope to shed light on the hidden potential of the vast panorama of new and emerging 2DMs as clinical cancer theranostics.

Keywords: 2D materials, cancer theranostics, future perspectives, graphene, nanomedicine.

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