Feng Geng et al 2011 Nanotechnology 22 285101 doi:10.1088/0957-4484/22/28/285101
Feng Geng1, Kun Song1, James Z Xing2,3, Cunzhong Yuan1, Shi Yan1, Qifeng Yang4, Jie Chen5,6,7 and Beihua Kong1
Show affiliationsThe treatment of ovarian cancer has traditionally been intractable, and required novel approaches to improve therapeutic efficiency. This paper reports that thio-glucose bound gold nanoparticles (Glu-GNPs) can be used as a sensitizer to enhance ovarian cancer radiotherapy. The human ovarian cancer cells, SK-OV-3, were treated by gold nanoparticles (GNPs) alone, irradiation alone, or GNPs in addition to irradiation. Cell uptake was assayed using inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES), while cytotoxicity induced by radiotherapy was measured using both 3-(4,5)-dimethylthiahiazo (-z-y1)-3,5-di-phenytetrazoliumromide and clonogenic assays. The presence of reactive oxygen species (ROS) was determined using CM-H2-DCFDA confocal microscopy and cell apoptosis was determined by an Annexin V-FITC/propidium iodide (PI) kit with flow cytometry. The cells treated by Glu-GNPs resulted in an approximate 31% increase in nanoparticle uptake compared to naked GNPs (p < 0.005). Compared to the irradiation alone treatment, the intracellular uptake of Glu-GNPs resulted in increased inhibition of cell proliferation by 30.48% for 90 kVp and 26.88% for 6 MV irradiation. The interaction of x-ray radiation with GNPs induced elevated levels of ROS production, which is one of the mechanisms by which GNPs can enhance radiotherapy on ovarian cancer.
Issue 28 (15 July 2011)
Received 12 February 2011, in final form 19 April 2011
Published 8 June 2011
Feng Geng et al 2011 Nanotechnology 22 285101