Impact of gold nanoparticles shape on their cytotoxicity against human osteoblast and osteosarcoma in in vitro model. Evaluation of the safety of use and anti-cancer potential

Abstract

Due to development of nanotechnology and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) increasing use in different areas of medicine, especially in oncology, better understanding of their potential cytotoxicity is necessary to protect patients safety. Shape and size of AuNPs is an important modulator of their cytotoxicity. Therefore, we investigated the cytotoxicity of AuNPs rods (≈39 nm length, 18 nm width), AuNPs stars (≈ 215 nm) and AuNPs spheres (≈ 6.3 nm) against human fetal osteoblast (hFOB 1.19), osteosarcoma (143B, MG63) and pancreatic duct cell (hTERT-HPNE) lines by MTT and neutral-red uptake assay. Moreover, influence of AuNPs on level of proapoptotic protein (Bax) and anti-apoptotic protein (Bcl-2) was measured by western blot. Cellular uptake of nanoparticles and ultrastructure changes were examined by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). In the present study we have proven that AuNPs stars are the most cytotoxic against human cells. We observed that cancer cells are more susceptible to AuNPs cytotoxic effect. Furthermore, AuNPs rods and AuNPs stars caused increased expression of Bax and decreased expression of Bcl-2 protein in osteosarcoma cells. We found that AuNPs penetrated through the cell membrane and caused ultrastructural changes. Our results clearly demonstrated that the cytotoxicity of AuNPs was shape-dependent. AuNPs stars with the highest anti-cancer potential were also the most cytotoxic type of tested NPs, whereas AuNPs spheres which appears to be the safest one had small anti-cancer potential.

Phytosynthesized Metallic Nanoparticles—between Nanomedicine and Toxicology. A Brief Review of 2019′s Findings

“…The same previously discussed morphological characteristics affect the anti-tumoral potential of nanoparticles. Literature data suggest that nanospheres possess the weakest cytotoxic potential (in the case of Ag and Au NPs), with the most promising morphologies being the nanowires (Ag NPs) [130] and the nanostars (Au NPs) [131]. El-Hawary et al [84] studied the potential of Ag NPs that were obtained by using two cultivars (with similar compositions) of Jasminum sambac L. The nanoparticles with smaller dimensions (8.83 nm) exhibited a higher cytotoxic potential against MCF-7 cells and human bladder carcinoma cells (5637) ( Table 3) and lower toxicity towards immortal keratinocyte cells (HaCaT) ( Table 4), as compared with the higher dimension NPs.…”

Facile Synthesis of Triangular and Hexagonal Anionic Gold Nanoparticles and Evaluation of Their Cytotoxicity

“…However, a very slightly negative slope was found which represents very less cytotoxic at high concentration of nanoparticles. The previous study has used very few concentration gold nanoparticles for cytotoxicity analysis [33,34]. We have found that cytotoxicity is very less with a high concentration of nanoparticles.…”

Modified Nanoparticles as Potential Agents in Bone Diseases: Cancer and Implant-Related Complications

“…Interestingly, other studies suggested that the anticancer activity of AuNPs is shape dependent. 143b and MG63 osteosarcoma cells were sensitive to AuNPs rods and stars but not to AuNPs spheres [20]. AuNPs are not the only NPs with anticancer activity.…”