Amadi, Emmanuel Eni, Najafzadeh, Mojgan, Jacob, Badie K, Baumgartner, Adi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7042-0308 and Anderson, Diana (2025) IN VITRO EVALUATION OF CYTOGENETIC DAMAGE BY GRAPHENE OXIDE (15-20 SHEETS) NANOMATERIALS IN HUMAN BLOOD LEUKOCYTES FROM HEALTHY INDIVIDUALS AND PULMONARY DISEASE PATIENTS DIAGNOSED WITH ASTHMA, COPD AND LUNG CANCER. International Journal of Engineering Technology Research & Management, 9 (8). pp. 98-124.

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Abstract

For the past few decades, the use of graphene oxide (GO) nanomaterials (NMs) has increased exceedingly due to
their biomedical applications in the drug delivery of anti-cancer drugs. Their unique physicochemical properties
and good surface chemistry with unbound surface functional groups enable covalent bonding with organic
molecules such as RNA and DNA, making GO NMs excellent candidates for drug delivery nanocarriers. Despite
the increased use in biomedical applications, there are concerns about their genotoxicity. Only a few studies on
GO NMs’ impact on DNA have been published on humans, let alone on patients diagnosed with chronic
pulmonary diseases. This study investigates for the first time the effects of commercial GO (15-20 sheets; 4-10%
edge-oxidized; 1 mg/ml) in vitro, in particular the DNA damage but also other genotoxic endpoints in whole blood
and peripheral blood leucocytes (PBL) from healthy individuals and patients diagnosed with chronic pulmonary
diseases, i.e., asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and lung cancer. After detailed
characterization of commercial GO NMs, cytotoxicity studies were conducted using the dimethyl thiazolyl
diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) and neutral red uptake (NRU) assays. In contrast, genotoxicity (DNA
damage and chromosome aberration parameters) was studied using alkaline Comet and cytokinesis-blocked
micronucleus (CBMN) assays. Our results showed concentration-dependent increases in cytotoxicity,
genotoxicity, and chromosome aberrations, with PBL from COPD and lung cancer patients being more sensitive
to DNA damage compared with asthma patients and healthy control individuals. GO NMs may have promising
roles in drug delivery applications when formulated to deliver drug payloads to cells for treating COPD or cancer
cells. But the fact that cytotoxicity, genotoxicity, and chromosome instability parameters as biomarkers of cancer
risk were increased in exposed cells from healthy individuals should be of concern regarding public health,
especially in occupational exposures and in medical treatments when using GO NMs as drug delivery nano-
carriers.

Item Type:	Article
Status:	Published
DOI:	10.5281/zenodo.16760236
Subjects:	R Medicine > R Medicine (General) R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine R Medicine > RM Therapeutics. Pharmacology R Medicine > RZ Other systems of medicine
School/Department:	School of Science, Technology and Health
URI:	https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/12809

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