Theoretical and Practical Potential of Gold Nanoparticle Application in Biomedicine
Gailutė Kirdaitė, Laima Leonavičienė, Rūta Bradūnaitė, Teisutis Ašmenavičius, Almira Ramanavičienė, Giedrė Miškinytė, Arūnas Ramanavičius, Zygmunt Mackevič
Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) were firstly described in 1857 and soon become extensively used in the fields of biology and biomedicine. Because of their small size, useful physicochemical properties, and easy surface modification the AuNPs are going to be widely used in diagnostics and therapeutics of various diseases, especially in cancer therapy. The nanosized dimension (1-100 nm) all ows AuNPs to be intorpotated into cells, makes them suitable for in vitro and in vivo imaging, drug delivery, and targeted treatment of tumor cells. Unfortunately the data about AuNPs toxicity are still rather contradictory: although AuNPs are recognized as being nontoxic, biocompatible, and inert; however, there are some reports on their toxicity, which has been shown to be dependent on the physical dimension, surface chemistry, and shape of the AuNPs. Gold-nanoconjugates are another important class of gold-based materials that are used in fundamental cell biology, although there isn’t much knowledge about gold- nanoconjugate and cell interaction at molecular level. Recently, considerable effort has been focused on the creation of drug delivery systems (DDSs) for improving cancer therapy. Therefore enhancing therapeutic seiectivity and efficacy as well as increasing applicability of AuNPs as DDS is a rapidly expanding scientific dirrections. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a modern low-traumatic method, which becomes a promising strategy for the targeted treatment of tumors. Recently conjugate of hematoporphyrin and 5-aminolevulinic acid with AuNPs was synthesized and evaluated on cultures of transformed cells as photodynamic agent. There are some researches where AuNPs were applied for the treatment of arthritis. Proliferation and angiogenesis of fibroblast is mediated by growth factors that play a major role in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and chronic inflammation. It was proved that these growth factors could be suc - cessfully suppressed by AuNPs, which are non-toxic for cells and even for tested animals even if they are injected into the organism. Antiangiogenic nanotherapy may become a promising approach for the treatment of RA, when combined with a conventional antirheumatic drugs.
Keywords: gold nanoparticles, biomedicine, rheumatoid arthritis, gold conjugates.
