Abstract
BackgroundThe combined use of radiation therapy and chemotherapy is commonly being used in cancer treatment. The side effects of the treatment can be further minimized through targeted delivery of anticancer drugs and local enhancement of the radiation dose. Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) can play a significant role in this regard since GNPs can be used as radiation dose enhancers and anticancer drug carriers. Anticancer drug, bleomycin, was chosen as the model drug, since it could be easily conjugated onto GNPs through the gold–thiol bond.MethodsGold nanoparticles of size 10 nm were synthesized using the citrate reduction method. The surface of The GNPs was modified with a peptide sequence (CKKKKKKGGRGDMFG) containing the RGD domain and anticancer drug, bleomycin. Human breast cancer cells (MDA-MB-231) were incubated with 0.3 nM concentration of GNP–drug complex for 16 h prior to irradiation with a 2 Gy single fraction of 6 MV X-rays. After the treatment, cells were trypsinized and seeded in 60 mm dishes for clonogenic assay. Damage to DNA was probed using immunofluorescence assay.ResultsCancer cells internalized with the GNP–drug complex had a 32 ± 9% decrease in cell survival and statistically significant enhancement in DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) damage as compared to control cells (irradiated with no GNPs) after receiving a radiation dose of 2 Gy with 6 MV photons.ConclusionsThe experimental results demonstrate that GNP-mediated chemoradiation has the potential to improve cancer care in the near future through enhancement of the local radiation dose and controlled delivery of anticancer drugs.
Highlights
The combined use of radiation therapy and chemotherapy is commonly being used in cancer treatment
Cellular accumulation of NPs modified with peptide containing integrin‐binding domain, RGD transmission electron microscopy (TEM), ultra violet (UV) spectroscopy, hyperspectral imaging, dynamic light scattering (DLS), and zeta potential measurements are used to characterize the Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) constructs as shown in Fig. 1a–c and Additional file 1: Fig. S3
UV visible peak wavelength of unmodified GNPs was 517 nm as shown in Fig. 1d and this is consistent with the wavelength corresponding to 10 nm diameter GNPs (Jain et al 2006)
Summary
The combined use of radiation therapy and chemotherapy is commonly being used in cancer treatment. The side effects of the treatment can be further mini‐ mized through targeted delivery of anticancer drugs and local enhancement of the radiation dose. Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) can play a significant role in this regard since GNPs can be used as radiation dose enhancers and anticancer drug carriers. Results: Cancer cells internalized with the GNP–drug complex had a 32 ± 9% decrease in cell survival and statistically significant enhancement in DNA (deoxyribonu‐ cleic acid) damage as compared to control cells (irradiated with no GNPs) after receiv‐ ing a radiation dose of 2 Gy with 6 MV photons. Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) can play a significant role in this regard, since GNPs can be used as radiation dose enhancers and anticancer drug carriers (Yohan and Chithrani 2014; Yang et al 2016; Chithrani et al 2010)
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