WS2/Polyethylene Glycol Nanostructures for Ultra-Efficient MCF-7 Cancer Cell Ablation and Electrothermal Therapy

Developing novel nanostructures and advanced nanotechnologies for cancer treatment has attracted ever-increasing interest. Electrothermal therapy offers many advantages such as high efficiency and minimal invasiveness, but finding a balance between increasing stability of the nanostructure state and, at the same time, enhancing the nanostructure biodegradability presents a key challenge. Here, we modulate the biodegradation process of two-dimensional-material-based nanostructures by using polyethylene glycol (PEG) via nanostructure disrupt-and-release effects. We then demonstrate the development of a previously unreported alternating current (AC) pulse WS2/PEG nanostructure system for enhancing therapeutic performance. A decrease in cell viability of ~42% for MCF-7 cells with WS2/PEG was achieved, which is above an average of ~25% for current electrothermal-based therapeutic methods using similar energy densities, as well as degradation time of the WS2 of ~1 week, below an average of ~3.5 weeks for state-of-the-art nanostructure-based systems in physiological media. Moreover, the incubation time of MCF-7 cells with WS2/PEG reached ~24 h, which is above the average of ~4.5 h for current electrothermal-based therapeutic methods and with the use of the amount of time harnessed to incubate the cells with nanostructures before applying a stimulus as a measure of incubation time. Material characterizations further disclose the degradation of WS2 and the grafting of PEG on WS2 surfaces. These WS2-based systems offer strong therapeutic performance and, simultaneously, maintain excellent biodegradability/biocompatibility, thus providing a promising route for the ablation of cancer.

Automated summary

Developing novel nanostructures and advanced nanotechnologies for cancer treatment has attracted increasing interest. In this study, the biodegradation process of two-dimensional-material-based nanostructures was modulated using polyethylene glycol (PEG), and a WS2/PEG nanostructure system was developed to enhance therapeutic performance. The WS2/PEG system achieved a 42% decrease in cell viability for MCF-7 cells, a WS2 degradation time of 1 week, and a MCF-7 cell incubation time of 24 hours.