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Review
. 2023 Jun 21;22(1):98.
doi: 10.1186/s12943-023-01798-8.

Gold nanoparticles and gold nanorods in the landscape of cancer therapy

Prashant Kesharwani #  1   2 , Ruiyang Ma #  3 , Liang Sang #  4 , Mahak Fatima #  5 , Afsana Sheikh #  5 , Mohammed A S Abourehab  6 , Neelima Gupta  7 , Zhe-Sheng Chen  8 , Yun Zhou  9
Affiliations
Review

Gold nanoparticles and gold nanorods in the landscape of cancer therapy

Prashant Kesharwani et al. Mol Cancer. .

Abstract

Cancer is a grievous disease whose treatment requires a more efficient, non-invasive therapy, associated with minimal side effects. Gold nanoparticles possessing greatly impressive optical properties have been a forerunner in bioengineered cancer therapy. This theranostic system has gained immense popularity and finds its application in the field of molecular detection, biological imaging, cancer cell targeting, etc. The photothermal property of nanoparticles, especially of gold nanorods, causes absorption of the light incident by the light source, and transforms it into heat, resulting in tumor cell destruction. This review describes the different optical features of gold nanoparticles and summarizes the advance research done for the application of gold nanoparticles and precisely gold nanorods for combating various cancers including breast, lung, colon, oral, prostate, and pancreatic cancer.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00436410 NCT00356980 NCT04907422.

Keywords: Cancer; Chemotherapeutics; Gold nanoparticles; Gold nanorods; Photothermal therapy; Reactive oxygen species.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Illustration of action of size- reducible CD44 targeting, hyaluronic acid protected- red emission, renal-clearable, indocyanine green and paclitaxel loaded, cationic bovine serum albumin coated gold nanoparticles (NO3-ICG-PTX@ CBSA-AUNPs /HA) on tumor cells. Reproduced with permission from reference [75]
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Illustrating the primary and metastasis cancer and action of CD44 targeting, hyaluronic acid protected- red emission, renal-clearable, indocyanine green and paclitaxel loaded, cationic bovine serum albumin coated gold nanoparticles on primary breast tumor as well as metastatic lung tumor cells
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Schematic representation of (A) IR820/DXB-MO@HA preparation (B) IR820/DXB-MO@HA targeting mammary cancer producing Redox/Enzme-Responsive drug release. Reproduced with permission from reference [97]
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
A Gold nanorods conjugated with polydiallyldimethylammonium chloride and loaded with salinomycin (B) Hyperthermia mediated by the prepared conjugation, resulting in selective elimination of cancer stem cells. Reproduced with permission from reference [109]
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Schematic representation of (A) Preparation and of polyethylenimine-pluronic-paclitaxel constituted gold nanopareticles (PP-PTX@AUNPs) and its chemo-photo combinatorial therapy (B) Synergistic treatment by PP-PTX@AUNPs against ARPC cancer cells. Reproduced with permission from reference [82]
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Graphical representation of the fabrication of BAG3-siRNA/GDNDs and its anti-tumor effect. Reproduced with permission from reference [145]
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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