International Journal of Nanomedicine (May 2020)
Emerging Antineoplastic Biogenic Gold Nanomaterials for Breast Cancer Therapeutics: A Systematic Review
Abstract
Muthupandian Saravanan,1 Hossein Vahidi,2 David Medina Cruz,3,4 Ada Vernet-Crua,3,4 Ebrahim Mostafavi,3,4 Ryan Stelmach,3 Thomas J Webster,3,4 Mohammad Ali Mahjoub,5 Masoumeh Rashedi,6 Hamed Barabadi2 1Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Division of Biomedical Science, School of Medicine, College of Health Sciences, Mekelle University, Mekelle 1871, Ethiopia; 2Department of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, School of Pharmacy, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; 3Department of Chemical Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA; 4Nanomedicine Science and Technology Center, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA; 5Department of Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; 6Student Research Committee, School of Medicine, Gonabad University of Medical Sciences, Gonabad, IranCorrespondence: Thomas J WebsterDepartment of Chemical Engineering, Nanomedicine Science and Technology Center, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USATel +1 617 373 6585Email [email protected] BarabadiDepartment of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, School of Pharmacy, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, PO Box 14155-6153, Tehran 1991953381, IranTel/Fax +982188665250Email [email protected]: Breast cancer remains as a concerning global health issue, being the second leading cause of cancer deaths among women in the United States (US) in 2019. Therefore, there is an urgent and substantial need to explore novel strategies to combat breast cancer. A potential solution may come from the use of cancer nanotechnology, an innovative field of study which investigates the potential of nanomaterials for cancer diagnosis, therapy, and theranostic applications. Consequently, the theranostic functionality of cancer nanotechnology has been gaining much attention between scientists during the past few years and is growing exponentially. The use of biosynthesized gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) has been explored as an efficient mechanism for the treatment of breast cancer. The present study supposed a global systematic review to evaluate the effectiveness of biogenic AuNPs for the treatment of breast cancer and their anticancer molecular mechanisms through in vitro studies. Online electronic databases, including Cochrane, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Science Direct, ProQuest, and Embase, were searched for the articles published up to July 16, 2019. Our findings revealed that plant-mediated synthesis was the most common approach for the generation of AuNPs. Most of the studies reported spherical or nearly spherical-shaped AuNPs with a mean diameter less than 100 nm in size. A significantly larger cytotoxicity was observed when the biogenic AuNPs were tested towards breast cancer cells compared to healthy cells. Moreover, biogenic AuNPs demonstrated significant synergistic activity in combination with other anticancer drugs through in vitro studies. Although we provided strong and comprehensive preliminary in vitro data, further in vivo investigations are required to show the reliability and efficacy of these NPs in animal models.Keywords: cancer nanotechnology, nanotoxicity, gold nanoparticles, anti-cancer
