Effect of gold nanoparticles on properties of nanoliposomal hydroxyurea: an in vitro study

New hopes in cancer treatment have been emerged using functional nanoparticles. In this work, we tried to synthesize gold nanoparticles and gold nanoparticles conjugated with DNA extracted from human breast cancer cells. After synthesizing, gold nanoparticles were mixed with nanoliposomal hydroxyurea and corresponding compounds were formed. They were described by UV-Visible spectrophotometry and Zeta sizer. Amount of drug loading into liposomes was determined by spectrophotometry and cytotoxicity effect on MCF-7 cells was measure by MTT assay. Drug loading was determined to be 70 %. Size, size distribution and Zeta potential of particles were 473 nm, 0.46 and -21 mV for control nanoliposomal ones and 351 nm, 0.38 and -25 mV for nanoliposomal particles containing hydroxyurea. This was 29 nm, 0.23 and -30 mV for gold nanoparticles and 502 nm, 0.41 and -38 mV for nanoliposomes containing drug loaded by gold nanoparticles conjugated with DNA. It was found that nano conjugated complex in concentrations less than 20 μM of hydroxyurea can improve efficiency compared with liposomal drug. In maximum concentration of drug (2,500 μM), cytotoxicity was equal to 95 %. In minimum concentration of drug (5 μM), cytotoxicity of liposomal drug and conjugated complex were 70 and 81 %, respectively which probably comes from increased drug entry into cells due to the presence of gold nanoparticles. Free drug resulted in toxicity of 32 % in 5 μM and 88 % in 2,500 μM. Results demonstrated higher drug efficiency in nanoparticle form compared with free form which can be used in in vivo studies.