Spiky piñata-shaped gold nanoparticles optimized for cancer treatments

Research with gold nanoparticles is finding better ways to kill cancer cells that could avoid the detrimental side effects associated with traditional treatments, which can’t distinguish between healthy and tumor cells.

Carreón-Álvarez et al. report findings on multibranched gold nanoparticles and their use in photothermal tumor ablation, a method that uses lasers to destroy cancer cells. These tiny, spiky, piñata-shaped particles have demonstrated usefulness in photothermal applications as they absorb near-infrared radiation and emit the energy as heat. If the particles are present in cancerous tissue, this effect can be used to kill nearby cancer cells.

In order to design more functional nanoparticles, the researchers controlled their synthesis, optimizing their spikey shape. This improved shape was found to radiate more heat with less energy input.

“The fact that we now understand how to control the growth and shape of nanostructures is a remarkable scientific advance,” said author José Luis Rodríguez-López.

The group also studied the protein halo that forms around the nanoparticles when they are injected intravenously, by immersing the nanoparticles in bovine and human sera. In both cases, they found a double molecular layer of serum albumin coating, which affected the particle’s aggregation.

These findings could help the nanoparticles be directed to specific cancer cells and allow researchers to create personalized treatments. The researchers are already working on follow up experiments to coat the nanoparticles with peptide ligands that stick to biomarkers of cervical and breast cancer cells.

“Our nanoparticles emit more heat than other nanoparticles with much less powerful laser radiation,” said author Rubén López-Revilla. “We expect that our nanoparticles will therefore improve photothermal tumor ablation.”

Source: “Multibranched gold nanoparticles coated with serum proteins fit for photothermal tumor ablation,” by Clara Carreón-Álvarez, José Luis Sánchez-García, Víctor Sanabria-Ayala, Luis Antonio Ortiz-Frade, Mario E. García-Rodríguez, José Luis Rodríguez-López, and Rubén López-Revilla, AIP Advances (2020). The article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0025368 .