Using gold nanoparticles in diagnosis and treatment of melanoma cancer

Figures & data

Figure 1. Different applications of gold nanoparticles in diagnosis and therapy. Nanoparticles are used in a variety of contexts such as: photo thermal therapy, targeting, drug delivery, imaging, nucleic acid delivery, toxin and microbial agent removal and as an adjuvant.

Figure 2. The most frequently employed AuNPs in photothermal therapy. Various types of AuNPs can be used in photothermal therapy. They have different sizes and shapes, and each one has advantages. Nanostars, nanocages, nanorods and nanoshell are the most common nanoparticles in photothermal therapy.

Figure 3. Different therapeutic approaches of gold nanoparticles for melanoma treatment. (a) Targeted delivery of several type of anticancer drugs or anticancer agents to tumour cells by gold nanoparticles. (b) Tumour directed drug delivery: increasing cell death by directed delivery of 5-aminolevulinic acid (5ALA)-conjugated gold nanoparticle. (c) Inhibition of melanoma tumour growth: melanoma tumour growth was inhibited by targeting epidermal growth factor receptor 2. (d) siRNA delivery for melanoma treatment: STAT3 siRNA using chitosan coated AuNP was delivered for increasing the killing rate of melanoma cells. siRNA can inhibit the overexpression of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) protein, leading enhancement of apoptosis of melanoma cells.

Table 1. A brief review of the studies and main endpoints.

First author	Year	Type of particles	Cells	Endpoint	Results
McCormack et al.	2011	Gold nanoparticles	Melanoma cells	The ability of gold nanoparticles in detecting circulating melanoma cells	Increasing photoacoustic detection system sensitivity
Chen et al.	2014	Gold nanoparticles	B16F10 murine melanoma cells	The anticancer efficacy of epigallocatechin-3-gallate conjugated with gold nanoparticles	Improving the efficacy of cancer therapies
Labala et al.	2015	Layer-by-layer polymer coated gold nanoparticles	B16F10 murine melanoma cells	The efficacy of polymer coating with gold nanoparticles for local delivery of imatinib to melanoma cells	Decreasing cells viability
Choi et al.	2015	Gold nanoparticles	Melanoma (G361) and keratinocyte (HaCaT) cell lines	Targeting NEU protein in melanoma cells with coating gold nanoparticles	Increasing melanoma cells death rate
Labala et al.	2016	Chitosan coated gold nanoparticles	B16F10 murine melanoma cells	STAT3 siRNA delivery using chitosan coated gold nanoparticles for killing melanoma cells.	Inhibition of cells growth
Camerin et al.	2016	Mesoporous silica nanoparticles	Human colon cancer cells (HCT-116)	Conjugating hydrophobic phthalocyanine photosensitizer with PEGylated gold nanoparticles	Improving the potential of targeted delivery
Mohammadi et al.	2017	Gold nanoparticles	Mel-Rm cell line	The efficacy of photosensitizing effects of 5ALA-conjugated gold nanoparticle in melanoma cells	Enhancing destruction of tumour cells and inducing cells death
Mousavi et al.	2017	mPEG-coated Gold nanoparticles	B16F10 murine melanoma cells	Enhancement of radiosensitivity of melanoma cells by pegylated gold nanoparticles	Decreasing proliferation and survival
Kim et al.	2017	Gold nanoparticles	Human skin melanoma cells (HTB-72)	The efficacy of gold nanoparticles to enhance kilovoltage X-ray therapy of melanoma	Improving radioresponses of melanoma cells.
Labala et al.	2017	Layer-by-layer assembled gold nanoparticles	B16F10 murine melanoma cells	The effectiveness of gold nanoparticles for conjugating STAT3 siRNA and imatinib as the inhibitors of melanoma cells	Decreasing cell viability and increasing apoptotic events