Size-Dependent Cytotoxic and Molecular Study of the Use of Gold Nanoparticles against Liver Cancer Cells

Abdulaziz A Al-Khedhairy,Rizwan Wahab

doi:10.3390/app12020901

Abstract

The size of nanomaterials influences physicochemical parameters, and variations in the size of nanomaterials can have a significant effect on their biological activities in cells. Due to the potential applicability of nanoparticles (NPs), the current work was designed to carry out a size-dependent study of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) in different dimensions, synthesized via a colloidal solution process. Three dissimilar-sized GNPs, GNPs-1 (10–15 nm), GNPs-2 (20–30 nm), and GNPs-3 (45 nm), were prepared and characterized via transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high-resolution TEM (HR-TEM), hydrodynamic size, zeta potential, and UV-visible spectroscopy, and applied against liver cancer (HepG2) cells. Various concentrations of GNPs (1, 2, 5, 10, 50, and 100 µg/mL) were applied against the HepG2 cancer cells to assess the percentage of cell viability via MTT and NRU assays; reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation was also used. ROS generation was increased by 194%, 164%, and 153% for GNPs-1, GNPs-2, and GNPs-3, respectively, in the HepG2 cells. The quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) data for the HepG2 cells showed up-regulation in gene expression of apoptotic genes (Bax, p53, and caspase-3) when exposed to the different-sized GNPs, and defined their respective roles. Based on the results, it was concluded that GNPs of different sizes have the potential to induce cancer cell death.

Highlights

The size of nanostructures plays a significant role in the optoelectronic industry, with various applications [1]
The data clearly show that prepared gold nanoparticles (GNPs) exhibit a lattice constant of face-centered cubic (FCC) crystals of GNPs that are consistent with published literature [59,60]
The synthesis of small-dimension GNPs was successfully performed via the colloidal chemical reduction process

Summary

Introduction

The size of nanostructures plays a significant role in the optoelectronic industry, with various applications [1]. Nanostructured materials have many different shapes and sizes, classified as zero-dimensional [2], one-dimensional [3], and two-dimensional [4,5] nanostructures [6], including dots [7], nanoparticles [8], rods [9], tubes, wires, and various other shapes and sizes that influence their physicochemical characteristics [10] These structures are formed either by physical or chemical means, such as plasma chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), chemical vapor deposition (CVD), hot filament chemical vapor deposition (HFCVD), microwave, sputtering, and a flame-assisted approach [11]. GNPs are used in biomedical engineering [23], cancer treatment [8], biomolecular systems [24], protein folding [25], DNA interaction and detection [26], labeling [27], drug delivery [28], imaging [29,30], tissue engineering [31], purification and separation of biological molecules, and marker genes [32]

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