title: Enhancement of cell recognition in vitro by dual-ligand cancer targeting gold nanoparticles.
abstract: A dual-ligand gold nanoparticle (DLGNP) was designed and synthesized to explore the therapeutic benefits of multivalent interactions between gold nanoparticles (GNPs) and cancer cells. DLGNP was tested on human epidermal cancer cells (KB), which had high expression of folate receptor. The cellular uptake of DLGNP was increased by 3.9 and 12.7 folds compared with GNP-folate or GNP-glucose. The enhanced cell recognition was due to multivalent interactions between both ligands on GNPs and cancer cells as shown by the ligand competition experiments. Furthermore, the multivalent interactions increased contrast between cells with high and low expression of folate receptors. The enhanced cell recognition enabled DLGNP to kill KB cells under X-ray irradiation at a dose that was safe to folate receptor low-expression (such as normal) cells. Thus DLGNP has the potential to be a cancer-specific nano-theranostic agent.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Biology and Therapeutics, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN 38105, USA.
authors.forename: Xi
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Hongyu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Guoqing
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Du
authors.forename: Atmaram S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Pai-Panandiker
authors.forename: Xuefei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Bing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Yan
mesh_terms: D016923:Cell Death / Q000528:radiation effects; D002460:Cell Line; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000528:radiation effects; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems / Q000379:methods*; D000078404:Epidermal Cells; D004817:Epidermis / Q000528:radiation effects; D058975:Folate Receptor 1 / Q000378:metabolism; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D008024:Ligands; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D013056:Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet; D013997:Time Factors; D014965:X-Rays
chemical_list: D058975:Folate Receptor 1; D008024:Ligands; D006046:Gold