Preliminary Assays towards Melanoma Cells Using Phototherapy with Gold-Based Nanomaterials.

Maria Manuela Gaspar,João Miguel Pinto Coelho,Pedro Manuel Cardoso Vieira,Ana Silveira Viana,Catarina Reis,Joana Lopes

doi:10.3390/nano10081536

Maria Manuela Gaspar, João Miguel Pinto Coelho + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/nano10081536

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Abstract

Cancer like melanoma is a complex disease, for which standard therapies have significant adverse side effects that in most cases are ineffective and highly unspecific. Thus, a new paradigm has come with the need of achieving alternative (less invasive) and effective therapies. In this work, biocompatible gold nanoparticles (GNPs) coated with hyaluronic acid and oleic acid were prepared and characterized in terms of size, morphology and cytotoxicity in the presence of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and two cell lines, the keratinocytes (healthy skin cells, HaCat) and the melanoma cells (B16F10). Results showed that these GNPs absorb within the near-infrared region (750–1400 nm), in the optical therapeutic window (from 650 to 1300 nm), in contrast to other commercial gold nanoparticles, which enables light to penetrate into deep skin layers. A laser emitting in this region was applied and its effect also analyzed. The coated GNPs showed a spherical morphology with a mean size of 297 nm without cytotoxic effects towards yeast and tested cell lines. Nevertheless, after laser irradiation, a reduction of 20% in B16F10 cell line viability was observed. In summary, this work appears to be a promising strategy for the treatment of non-metastatic melanoma or other superficial tumors.

Highlights

Cancer is one of the largest, if not the largest, public health problem, accounting for nearly 13% of worldwide deaths [1]
For B16F10, the murine melanoma cells, the viability of these cells was reduced by 20% (74% versus 94%) in comparison to B16F10 cells irradiated only with laser
This effect seems to be selective to melanoma cells, characterized by an overexpression of cell receptors to hyaluronic acid (HA) that is present in gold nanoparticles (GNPs) coating [33]

Summary

Introduction

Cancer is one of the largest, if not the largest, public health problem, accounting for nearly 13% of worldwide deaths [1]. To highlight the magnitude of this problem, it is estimated that until 2035 the global annual incidence of cancer may double compared to the current one, which could reach about 29.4 million new cases [2]. The incidence of melanoma is rising, faster than almost any other type of cancer [3]. This year, 2020, only in the United States, 1,806,590 new cancer cases is estimated to occur and 100,350 will be due to melanoma resulting in a high number of deaths [4]. Ninety five percent of melanomas are located at the skin level, cutaneous melanoma, and there are still a small percentage (5%) that develop in the mucosa, retina and meninges [5,7]

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