Gold Nanoparticles for Targeting Varlitinib to Human Pancreatic Cancer Cells
Sílvia Castro Coelho,
Daniel Pires Reis,
Maria Carmo Pereira,
Manuel A. N. Coelho
Affiliations
Sílvia Castro Coelho
LEPABE—Laboratory for Process Engineering, Environment, Biotechnology and Energy, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Rua Dr Roberto Frias, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
Daniel Pires Reis
LEPABE—Laboratory for Process Engineering, Environment, Biotechnology and Energy, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Rua Dr Roberto Frias, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
Maria Carmo Pereira
LEPABE—Laboratory for Process Engineering, Environment, Biotechnology and Energy, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Rua Dr Roberto Frias, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
Manuel A. N. Coelho
LEPABE—Laboratory for Process Engineering, Environment, Biotechnology and Energy, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Rua Dr Roberto Frias, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
Colloidal gold nanoparticles are targeting probes to improve varlitinib delivery into cancer cells. The nanoconjugates were designed by the bioconjugation of pegylated gold nanoparticles with varlitinib via carbodiimide-mediated cross-linking and characterized by infrared and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The drug release response shows an initial delay and a complete drug release after 72 h is detected. In vitro experiments with MIA PaCa-2 cells corroborate that PEGAuNPsVarl conjugates increase the varlitinib toxic effect at very low concentrations (IC50 = 80 nM) if compared with varlitinib alone (IC50 = 259 nM). Our results acknowledge a decrease of drug side effects in normal cells and an enhancement of drug efficacy against to the pancreatic cancer cells reported.
