ABSTRACT
Small-sized gold nanoparticles (∼3nm) coated with Glutathione (GSH) ligand have designed as an active agent in photothermal therapy (PTT). GSH is pH-sensitive surface that have a fast response property to the variation in pH conditions, especially between normal (∼7.4) and cancer cell (6–6.5), that help the evaluation of the target and toxic effect of the cancer rather than normal cells. Results revealed considerable toxic effects of GSH-AuNPs accumulation in cancer cells for both green and NIR laser irradiation. The GSH-AuNPs represent promising agents for developing the safety issues of photothermal cancer treatment by; the selective targeting of the cancer rather than normal cells, reducing the NPs toxicity by their size overlapping with the renal clearance barrier of kidney filtration (~5.5 nm), and promoting the photothermal performance in the NIR region, in which light penetration into deep cancer regions are more interested.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).