Chapter 5 - Gold nanoparticles for delivery of nucleic acid constructs for cancer treatment

Abstract

Cancer is a complex disease that requires many forms of targeting and therapeutics. In the last few decades, the use of nucleic acid therapeutics, mainly DNA, mRNA, and genome editing systems, such as clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein 9 (Cas9), has set a precedent in effectiveness and performance in the treatment of different types of tumors, holding significant potential as a form of cancer therapy. Nonetheless, these therapeutics should overcome delivery obstacles to be successful, including the poor uptake into target cells, required biodistribution within cells and eventual nuclear entry, and potential in vivo degradation and toxicity in untargeted cells. The use of nanotechnology for the delivery of nucleic acids has softened some of these challenges and even provided some mechanisms to study or completely overcome them. Among all the available nanosystems, the use of gold nanoparticles positioned itself as one of the most established and well-performing options due to its unique properties in the nanoscale and its ease of functionalization, as well as the ability of these nanomaterials to allow for dual therapies based on delivery and treatment in just one system. In this review, we discuss some state-of-the-art research around the use of gold nanoparticles for nucleic acid delivery in both in vitro and in vivo models, highlighting the clinical aspects and prospects of these nanomaterials.