Plasma protein corona reduces the haemolytic activity of graphene oxide nano and micro flakes

Intensive research on the bio-applications of graphene and its derivatives is leading to many technological applications. Graphene Oxide (GO), for its unique 2-D structure and its physical/chemical properties, has attracted increasing interest over the last few years in the fields of drug/gene delivery, biological imaging and antibacterial treatments. Together with these great potentials for biomedical applications, several aspects of graphene toxicity mechanisms including oxidative stress, cutting off intracellular metabolic routes and cell membrane rupture must be carefully evaluated. In this work we demonstrate that the GO flakes, able to disrupt the erythrocyte plasma membrane, greatly reduce their hemolytic activity after interacting with plasma proteins.