Abstract
(1) Background: Chitosan-coated gold nanoparticles (CH-AuNPs) have important theranostic applications in biomedical sciences, including cancer research. However, although cell cytotoxicity has been studied in cancerous cells, little is known about their effect in proliferating primary leukocytes. Here, we assessed the effect of CH-AuNPs and the implication of ROS on non-cancerous endothelial and fibroblast cell lines and in proliferative lymphoid cells. (2) Methods: The Turkevich method was used to synthetize gold nanoparticles. We tested cell viability, cell death, ROS production, and cell cycle in primary lymphoid cells, compared with non-cancer and cancer cell lines. Concanavalin A (ConA) or lipopolysaccharide (LPS) were used to induce proliferation on lymphoid cells. (3) Results: CH-AuNPs presented high cytotoxicity and ROS production against cancer cells compared to non-cancer cells; they also induced a different pattern of ROS production in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). No significant cell-death difference was found in PBMCs, splenic mononuclear cells, and bone marrow cells (BMC) with or without a proliferative stimuli. (4) Conclusions: Taken together, our results highlight the selectivity of CH-AuNPs to cancer cells, discarding a consistent cytotoxicity upon proliferative cells including endothelial, fibroblast, and lymphoid cells, and suggest their application in cancer treatment without affecting immune cells.
Highlights
Cancer is still the main cause of death for patients worldwide, with increasing incidence [1]
The average size was tested by dynamic light scattering (DLS), and SC-AuNPs revealed a size of 3–10 nm, with a mean value of 3.5 nm, while CH-AuNPs showed an average size of 3–10 nm, with a mean value of
CH-AuNPs did not decrease the cell viability of human umbilical vascular endothelial cells (HUVECs), NIH3T3s and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) more than 30% at the concentration at which 100% of cell-viability loss was observed in A549
Summary
Cancer is still the main cause of death for patients worldwide, with increasing incidence [1]. Cancer cells are characterized by uncontrolled division and proliferation, and by their ability to invade other tissues [2]. It is currently accepted that the proliferative signaling pathways in cancer cells harbor one or more driving alterations that provide them a survival edge [3,4]. Their cell-death resistance and the continuous replicative state of cancer cells limits the success of current treatments [3,4,5]. Most cancer treatments promote immunosuppression, as they are highly cytotoxic to proliferating non-cancer cells, which is the case of immune-system cells. The application of nanotechnology in medicine seeks to innovate with new techniques and materials for diagnosis, treatment, and prevention therapies for different diseases [6,7]
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