Uptake mechanism of metabolic-targeted gold nanoparticles

Abstract

Aim: To elucidate the interactions, uptake mechanisms and cytotoxicity profile of glucose-functionalized gold nanoparticles (2GF-GNPs), for expanding and advancing the recently proposed technology of metabolic-based cancer detection to a variety of cancer diseases.

Methods: Several cell types with different metabolic features were used to assess the involvement of GLUT-1 and different endocytosis pathways in 2GF-GNP uptake, and the cytotoxicity profile of 2GF-GNPs.

Results: Cellular uptake of 2GF-GNP strongly correlated with GLUT-1 surface expression, and occurred mainly through clathrin-mediated endocytosis. 2GF-GNPs showed no toxic effect on cell cycle and proliferation.

Conclusion: These findings promote development of metabolic-based cancer detection technologies, and suggest that 2GF-GNPs may enable specific cancer detection in a wide range of tumors characterized by high GLUT-1 expression.

Keywords: GLUT-1; cancer; clathrin-mediated endocytosis; glucose-coated nanoparticles; gold nanoparticles; metabolic-targeting.