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Updated: Jan 25, 2026

Large Area Substrate-Based Nanofabrication of Controllable and Customizable Gold Nanoparticles Via Capped Dewetting
Published on: February 26, 2019
Epirubicin-loaded marine carrageenan oligosaccharide capped gold nanoparticle system for pH-triggered anticancer drug
Xiangyan Chen1,2, Wenwei Han1,2, Xia Zhao3,4
1Key Laboratory of Marine Drugs, Ministry of Education, School of Medicine and Pharmacy, Ocean University of China, Shandong Provincial Key laboratory of Glycoscience and Glycoengineering, Qingdao, 266003, China.
Abstract:
Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and the pH stimuli-responsive drug delivery system have been extensively applied in cancer treatment. Carrageenan derived from marine red algae shows a promising application prospect for drug delivery as a nanomaterial for its biodegradability, abundance, and non-toxicity. Carrageenan oligosaccharide (CAO) was used as a biocompatible reductant for green synthesis of CAO-AuNPs, and the obtained CAO-AuNPs were further used as a delivery system for pH-triggered delivery of epirubicin (EPI). The EPI-CAO-AuNPs were demonstrated to be spherical and homogeneous with mean diameter of 141 ± 6 nm by means of electron microscopy and Malvern particle size analyzer. Results showed that the release of EPI from EPI-CAO-AuNPs was significant under acidic condition that simulated cancer environment, while it was negligible under physiological pH in vitro. Confocal laser scanning microscope and flow cytometry analysis showed that EPI-CAO-AuNPs were localized in cellular nucleus and induced more apoptosis of HCT-116 and HepG2 cells than free EPI. A new pH-triggered anticancer drug release was achieved by EPI-CAO-AuNPs system for the first time. The developed EPI-CAO-AuNPs nanosystem shows a promising prospect for pH-triggered delivery of antitumor drugs, and our work provides a new idea for targeted drug delivery by using biocompatible marine carbohydrates as nanomaterial.
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