Abstract
In the present work, gold nanoparticles were successfully prepared using chitosan as reducing and capping agent and subsequently used as carriers for hydrophobic anticancer 6 mercaptopurine (6 MP). The use of this drug is limited due to its poor bioavailability. The purpose of the present investigation was to evaluate a method for loading hydrophobic drug 6 MP on chitosan reduced gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). The resulting AuNPs and 6MP loaded AuNPs were characterized using ultraviolet visible spectrophotometry and transmission electron microscopy. To estimate the improvement of the drug delivery of AuNPs, breast cancer cells MCF7 were treated with 6 MP and 6 MP loaded AuNPs and the cell viability was studied in vitro using Sulphorhodamine-B (SRB) assay. The data showed that both free 6 MP and 6 MP loaded AuNPs revealed anti-proliferation activity against the cancer cells in dosedependent manners. Moreover, 6 MP loaded AuNPs displays significantly greater anti-proliferation activity than that of free 6 MP at all concentrations and IC50 1.93 nM. The improvement of anti-proliferation activity of 6 MP loaded AuNPs compared to that of 6 MP can be attributed to enhanced intracellular uptake of the functionalized GNPs via the mechanism of endocytosis.