Cytotoxicity of gold nanoparticles associates with multivalent interactions at interface

Abstract

Design and synthesis of nanomaterials for biomedical application continues to receive immense interest among the researcher. Among various nanoparticles, gold nanoparticles have recently garnered great attention for biomedical applications (e.g., diagnostic and therapeutic applications) because of their unique fundamental properties. Gold nanoparticles are mostly used for drug delivery due to their non-toxic and biocompatible nature. Here, we have designed hydrophobic gold nanoparticles, which show cytotoxicity to cancer cells as well multidrug resistance cancer cell and induce apoptosis to cancer cell by ROS generation. Moreover, this hydrophobic gold nanoparticles also inhibit the spheroid growth. This finding will help in consideration of toxicity during the design of gold nanoparticles for drug delivery application.