Folic Acid-Functionalized Composite Scaffolds of Gelatin and Gold Nanoparticles for Photothermal Ablation of Breast Cancer Cells.

Huajian Chen,Xiuhui Wang,Linawati Sutrisno,Guoping Chen,Naoki Kawazoe,Tianjiao Zeng,Yingnan Yang

doi:10.3389/fbioe.2020.589905

Abstract

Photothermal therapy (PTT) has been developed as a useful therapeutic method for cancer treatment. Localization of PTT agents in cancer sites and targeting capacity are required to further increase therapeutic efficacy. In this study, gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and gelatin were functionalized with folic acid (FA) and hybridized to prepare FA-functionalized gelatin–AuNPs composite scaffolds. AuNPs with rod and star shapes of three sizes (40, 70, and 110 nm) were used for the hybridization to investigate the influence of AuNPs shape and size. The composite scaffolds showed porous structures with good interconnectivity. Modification with FA increased capture capacity of the composite scaffolds. Hybridization with AuNPs rendered the composite scaffold a good photothermal conversion property under near-infrared (NIR) laser irradiation. Temperature change during laser irradiation increased with the laser power intensity and irradiation time. The shape and size of AuNPs also affected their photothermal conversion property. The composite scaffold of gold nanorods 70 (FA-G/R70) had the highest photothermal conversion capacity. Breast cancer cells cultured in the FA-G/R70 composite scaffold were killed under NIR laser irradiation. Mouse subcutaneous implantation further demonstrated the excellent photothermal ablation capability of FA-G/R70 composite scaffold to breast cancer cells. The FA-functionalized composite scaffolds were demonstrated a high potential for local PPT of breast cancer.

Highlights

Breast cancer has high incident and mortality ratio and is a serious threat to human health (Bray et al, 2018; Ji et al, 2020)
AuNPs have been recognized as one of the most promising photothermal agents because of their good biocompatibility and high photothermal conversion efficiency (Deng et al, 2014). They have another advantage of tunable NIR absorbance due to their localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) (Ding et al, 2014; Eyvazzadeh et al, 2017), which means photothermal conversion capability of AuNPs can be controlled by adjusting their shapes and sizes (Hwang et al, 2014)
The difference of UV-visible absorbance spectra and absorbance peaks among these Au nanorods (AuNRs) and AuNRs could be attributed to LSPR effect of AuNPs (Zhao et al, 2009)

Summary

Introduction

Breast cancer has high incident and mortality ratio and is a serious threat to human health (Bray et al, 2018; Ji et al, 2020). AuNPs have been recognized as one of the most promising photothermal agents because of their good biocompatibility and high photothermal conversion efficiency (Deng et al, 2014) They have another advantage of tunable NIR absorbance due to their localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) (Ding et al, 2014; Eyvazzadeh et al, 2017), which means photothermal conversion capability of AuNPs can be controlled by adjusting their shapes and sizes (Hwang et al, 2014). Benefited from these features, optimal cancer therapeutic effect can be achieved by choosing the appropriate AuNPs (Mackey et al, 2014; Moustaoui et al, 2019)

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Conclusion