Green synthesis of re duce d graphene oxide (RGO) using the plant extract of Salvia spinosa and evaluation of photothermal effect on pancreatic cancer cells

Pancreatic cancer (PC, uncontrollable cell growth in pancreas) shows no symptoms until advancement and thus it become difficult to diagnose at early stages. The treatment strategies for PC include chemother-apy, surgery, and radiotherapy. However, the recovery rate is very low and thus an effective alternative treatment is required to fight against PC. Therefore, the present was attempted to evaluate the photother-mal destruction of PC cells by biologically reduced graphene oxide (RGO). The plant extract of Salvia spinosa was found to facilitate the conversion of graphene oxide (GO) to RGO, due to presence of numer-ous bioactive molecules. The biomolecules act as a reducing agent and this process paves the way for green technology. The green synthesized RGO was analyzed through various characterization techniques (spectroscopic methods: ultra-violet visible (UV-Vis); fourier-transform infrared (FTIR); X-ray diffraction (XRD); Raman; X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and microscopic method: scanning electron mi-croscope, SEM). The results indicate that green synthesis of RGO is simple, economical and eco-friendlier. An evaluation of photothermal conversion efficacy revealed that green-synthesized RGO has the ability to enhance the temperature to a greater extent in comparison to GO. Furthermore, cell viability assay per -formed through MTT dye revealed the non-toxic nature of RGO. Nevertheless, it significantly destructed the PC cells (Panc02-H7) after exposing the RGO loaded PC cells to laser radiation. The obtained results were further corroborated through live/dead cell assay. (c) 2021 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Automated summary

Pancreatic cancer is often asymptomatic and difficult to diagnose early, with current treatment methods having limited efficacy. This study investigates the photothermal destruction of PC cells using biologically reduced graphene oxide (RGO) synthesized with Salvia spinosa extract, showing promising potential as a therapeutic approach.