Abstract
Amphiphilic gold nanoparticles (amph-NPs), composed of gold cores surrounded by an amphiphilic mixed organic ligand shell, are capable of embedding within and traversing lipid membranes. Here we describe a strategy using crosslink-stabilized lipid nanocapsules (NCs) as carriers to transport such membrane-penetrating particles into tumor cells and promote their transfer to intracellular membranes for enhanced radiotherapy of cancer. We synthesized and characterized interbilayer-crosslinked multilamellar lipid vesicles (ICMVs) carrying amph-NPs embedded in the capsule walls, forming Au-NCs. Confocal and electron microscopies revealed that the intracellular distribution of amph-NPs within melanoma and breast tumor cells following uptake of free particles vs Au-NCs was quite distinct and that amph-NPs initially delivered into endosomes by Au-NCs transferred over a period of hours to intracellular membranes through tumor cells, with greater intracellular spread in melanoma cells than breast carcinoma cells. Clonogenic assays revealed that Au-NCs enhanced radiotherapeutic killing of melanoma cells. Thus, multilamellar lipid capsules may serve as an effective carrier to deliver amphiphilic gold nanoparticles to tumors, where the membrane-penetrating properties of these materials can significantly enhance the efficacy of frontline radiotherapy treatments.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 8992-9002 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | ACS Nano |
Volume | 8 |
Issue number | 9 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Sep 23 2014 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- amphiphilic nanoparticles
- biological TEM
- cell-penetrating nanoparticles
- glycocalyx
- gold nanoparticles
- multilamellar lipid vesicles
- radiotherapy
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Materials Science(all)
- Engineering(all)
- Physics and Astronomy(all)