Biocompatible PEGylated Gold nanorods function As cytokinesis inhibitors to suppress angiogenesis

Pathological angiogenesis is driven by uncontrolled growth of endothelial cells (ECs), which could lead to retinopathy, tumor and rheumatoid arthritis, etc. ECs must experience multiple cell division process to grow, and cytokinesis is the final step. The present study shows that PEGylated GNRs (PEG-GNRs) specifically target ECs cytokinesis process which results in high ratio of binucleated cells, and these binucleated ECs lose the ability to proliferate. Further data show that PEG-GNRs do not induce toxicity in vitro and in vivo. PEG-GNRs could inhibit ECs proliferation, migration, tube formation and inhibit angiogenesis in ex vivo model. Oxygen induced retinopathy and tumor angiogenesis model further show that PEG-GNRs can inhibit angiogenesis in vivo. Gene expression profiles reveal that PEG-GNRs mainly affect ECs cell division process, and PEG-GNRs treated ECs are arrested in G2/M phase. The mechanism is that PEG-GNRs could disrupt TGFβ pathway, and subsequently suppress the assembly of actin filaments in contractile ring site. These findings indicate that PEG-GNR is a novel cytokinesis inhibitor which can be used to interfere with retinal angiogenesis and tumor.