LAUSR

Gold nanorods (GNR) have gained pronounced recognition in diagnosis and treatment of cancers driven by their distinctive properties. Herein, gold-based nano-system was prepared by utilizing a phospholipid moiety linked to thiolated poly ethylene glycol; 1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine-N-PEG-SH (DSPE-PEG-SH), as a surface decorating agent. The synthesized phospholipid-PEG-GNR displayed good colloidal stability upon exposure to the tissue culture medium. Cytotoxicity of phospholipid-PEG-GNR was investigated toward MCF-7 and T47D breast cancer cells using Sulforhodamine B test, and the results revealed that phospholipid-PEG-GNR demonstrated high cytotoxicity to MCF-7 cells compared to T47D cells, and minimal cytotoxicity to human dermal fibroblasts. The cellular uptake studies performed by imaging and quantitative analysis demonstrated massive internalization of phospholipid-coated GNR into the MCF-7 cells in comparison to T47D cells. The cellular death modality of the cancer cells after treatment with phospholipid-PEG-GNR was evaluated using mitochondrial membrane potential assay (JC-1 dye), gene expression analysis and flow cytometry study. The overall results suggest that phospholipid-modified GNR enhanced mainly the cellular apoptotic events in MCF-7 cells in addition to necrosis, while cellular necrosis and suppressing the cellular invasion are contributing to the cellular death modality in T47D cell line. The phospholipid-coated GNR interact in a different manner with breast cancer cell lines and could be considered for breast cancer treatment.