Preparation and cytotoxic activity of resveratrol-gold nanoparticles conjugated to folic acid against MCF-7 cell line

Abstract

The potential benefits of resveratrol (Trans-3, 5, 4’-trihidroxy stilbene) as an anti-cancer are lowered becauseof it’s low aquous solubility, instability and low bioavailability. Recent progresses in nanoparticle technology offer apromising loophole to solve many problems in developing theurapetic agents. The ability of a nanocarrier to selectivelybring drug substances to the site of a tumor solely based on passive targeting can be enhanced by coupling a ligand tothe surface of the nanocarrier knowingly as active targeting. This research aimed to test the cytotoxic activity ofresveratrol conjugated to gold nanoparticles-folate as a carrier. Gold nanoparticles (AuNp) was chosen as a suitablecarriers to increase the potency of resveratrol (Rsv) as an anti cancer agent with the help of folic acid (FA). The expressionof folate receptors are hightened due to the excessive need of folic acid by certain types of cancer cells. Thus folic acidcan act as a targeting agent to help introduce gold nanoparticles to the target cells. Furthermore, the cytotoxic activityof the final conjugate (FA-AuNp-Rsv) will be tested against human breast cancer MCF-7 cell line using MTTcholorimetric test. Gold nanoparticles were fabricated using optimized amount of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as a stabilizers.FA were attached to the surface of gold nanoparticles using 4-Aminothiophenol (4-Atp) as a linker. The carboxilic groupof FA was first activated using common EDC-NHS reaction and reacted with amine group of 4-Atp to form amide bond.The physical and chemical characterization has been conducted and it was found that the final 86.9 nm nanoconjugate(FA-AuNp-Rsv) were successfuly synthesized with good stability and possesed an elevated activity (IC50=21.28 ± 1.04μM) compared to resveratrol alone (49.94 ± 1.06 μM). Thus this results were hoped to be an adequate addition to thedevelopment of nanotechnology in cancer therapy.