Gold Nanoparticles and Reduced Graphene Oxide-Gold Nanoparticle Composite Materials as Covalent Drug Delivery Systems for Breast Cancer Treatment

Abstract

AuNPs and AuNPs/RGO composites were engineered as drug delivery nanoplatforms to efficiently deliver the anti-cancer drug to MCF-7 breast cancer cells. The anti-cancer drug, mitoxantrone (MTX), was tethered to the gold nanoparticles via a 3-mercaptopropionic acid (MPA) spacer and an acid-cleavable amid bond (SMTX-AuNPs). Then, the surface of the RGO nanosheets were decorated with SMTX-AuNPs (SMTX-AuNPs/RGO). For comparison purposes, MPA functionalized nanoparticles (MPA-AuNPs) and their nanocomposites (MPA-AuNPs/RGO) were also prepared using the same procedure. The formation of the nanomaterials was verified by spectroscopic and morphological techniques. The drug delivery activity of materials on MCF-7 cells was investigated invitro using different methods. Our results demonstrate that SMTX-AuNPs have better activity on cancer cells than free MTX and SMTX-AuNPs/RGO. Further, contradicting previous studies, our findings suggest that the use of graphene-based materials for the covalent drug delivery systems need to be revisited.