Anti-CD30-targeted gold nanoparticles for photothermal therapy of L-428 Hodgkin’s cell

Abstract

Purpose

Due to the efficient bioconjugation and highly photothermal effect, gold nanoparticles can stain receptor-overexpressing cancer cells through specific targeting of ligands to receptors, strongly absorb specific light and efficiently convert it into heat based on the property of surface plasmon resonance, and then induce the localized protein denaturation and cell death.

Methods

Two gold nanoparticle–antibody conjugates, gold-BerH2 antibody (anti-CD30 receptor) and gold-ACT1 antibody (anti-CD25-receptor), were synthesized. Gold-BerH2 conjugates can specifically bind to the surface of L-428 Hodgkin’s cells, and gold-ACT1 conjugates were used for the control. The gold nanoparticle-induced L-428 cell-killing experiments were implemented with different experimental parameters.

Results

At a relatively low concentration of gold and short incubation time, the influence of cytotoxicity of gold on cell viability can be overlooked. Under laser irradiation at suitable power, the high killing efficiency of gold-targeted L-428 cells was achieved, but little damage was done to nontargeted cancer cells.

Conclusion

Gold nanoparticle-mediated photothermal therapy provides a relatively safe therapeutic technique for cancer treatment.

Keywords:

• gold nanoparticle–antibody conjugates
• surface plasmon resonance
• laser irradiation
• selective destruction
• photothermal treatment
• cancer

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge Gereon Huettmann, Ramtin Rahmanzadeh, Barbara Flucke, Margit Kernbach, Bever Marco, and Astrid Rodewald from the Institute of Biomedical Optics, University of Lübeck for their assistance during these experiments. We thank the Research Center Borstel for supplying the L-428 cell line and for their help during the preparation of immunooptical probes. This work is supported by the Program of the National Basic Research and Development Program of China (973) under Grant No 2011CB707702, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos 81090272, 30900334, 60927011, 61108079, and 61120106013.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.