1. Conclusion/Discussion
Confocal imaging of dipods with free dox.
The low presence of red in D shows that only a small amount of doxorubicin was transferred into the nucleus of the cell.
Confocal imaging of dox conjugated nanoparticles.
Gold Dipod Nanoparticles’ Effectiveness for Killing PC-3 Prostate Cancer Cells in Vitro
Deirdre O’Sullivan
Hypothesis
Gold dipod nanoparticles conjugated with doxorubicin would be the most effective at killing the prostate cancer cells.
Key Terms
PC-3 Cells- Prostate cancer cell line.
Doxorubicin- Anti-cancer drug commonly used to treat many types of cancer. Doxorubicin was chosen for this study because it has been shown to be effective at killing PC-3 prostate cancer cells.
Adsorption: Attached to the surface.
Dipod Nanoparticle- Dipod shaped nanoparticle, having dimensions of 20 nm or less. Consist of one platinum nanocage and two gold nanospheres.
Introduction
In 2013, approximately 238,600 new cases of prostate cancer will have been diagnosed, and roughly 30,000 men in the United States alone will have died from it (Cancer.org).
Approximately one in six men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime (Cancer.org).
Nanoparticles have an incredibly large surface area to volume ratio, and since many drugs adsorb readily on surfaces, their large surface area makes them excellent vehicles for delivery of drugs.
For example, the surface area to volume ratio of a 10 nm nanoparticle is about 7,500,000 times that of a baseball! (Couvreur, P. (2012))
Methodology
PC-3 prostate cancer cells were cultured from a frozen sample and split into different containers as needed.
Nanoparticles were prepared from previously synthesized solutions to make them biocompatible.
Combined into various solutions.
Dipods alone
Doxorubicin alone
Dipods conjugated with doxorubicin
Dipods in solution with free doxorubicin
Cell viability of each solution was tested with a fluorometer.
Confocal imaging was done to see where the doxorubicin went within the cell.
One way ANOVA statistics were done and Tukeys honestly significant difference was calculated.
The overlap of blue and red panel D cells shows how the doxorubicin conjugated with nanoparticles was more effective at infiltrating the cells than dox alone, thus delivering more doxorubicin.
Statistics
F value must be > 1 to show that variance between groups is not related to random error.
F = 319.5, thus showing that these results are statistically significant.
The p value was <.01, meaning that these results were extremely significant.
Conclusion/Discussion
Gold dipods were efficient adsorbers of doxorubicin, and increased the effectiveness of doxorubicin transport into human prostate cells as compared to doxorubicin alone.
When in a concentration of between mL dox/ mL medium and 4.0 mL dox/mL medium, dox conjugated dipods were able to efficiently kill around 90 % of the prostate cancer cells.
Research still needs to be done to confirm and expand these results; however, they show promise for the use of gold dipod nanoparticles for the enhancement of drug delivery to cancerous cells.
Results
Kai Cheng 2013
Kai Cheng 2013
Cell viability dox vs. dox conjugated nps.
Source
Degrees of Freedom
Sum of Squares
Mean Square Score
F ratio
Between Groups 3
5536
1845
319.5
Within Groups 8
46.21
5.780
Total 11
5582
= DOX = DOX conjugated NPs
Cell viability comparing dox, dox+nps, dox conjugated nps, and nps alone
References
Cheng, K. (2011, September 7). Novel Gold Dipod Nanoparticles as Photoacoustic Molecular Imaging Agents for Cancer Imaging of Living Subjects. Cheng, S. (2007). Monopod, Bipod, Dipod, and Tetrapod Gold Nanocrystals. JACS communications.
Couvreur, P. (2012). Nanoparticles in drug delivery: Past, present and future. Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews.
Devadesu, V. (n.d.). Can Controversial Nanotechnology Promise Drug Delivery? Chemical Reviews,
Haley, B., & Frenkel, E. (2008). Nanoparticles for drug delivery in cancer treatment. Urologic Oncology,
Roa, W. H. (2011). inhalable nanoparticles, a non-invasive approach to treat lung cancer in a mouse model. Science Direct.
What are the key statistics about prostate cancer? (2013, August 26). Retrieved September 26, 2013, from Cancer.org website:
=Dox =Dox + Nps =Dox Conj. Nps =Nps