The research, led by the University of Southampton’s Antonios Kanaras, works on the use of engineered colloidal nanoparticles to target endothelial cells – the building blocks of angiogenesis.
The team looked at the effects of four different morphologies of the nanoparticles; spherical, rodlike, hollow gold and core/ shell silica/ gold (CS).
They found that hollow sphere shape gold nanoparticles are consumed less than rod-shape nanoparticles.
However after the application of laser therapy which corresponds to the mild hyperthermia conditions used in the experiments, the sphere shaped molecules’ efficiency of cutting endothelial activity – and therefore constricting oxygen to the cancerous cell – is equivalent to the rod-shaped.
Therefore the hollow nanoparticle has the same impact at minimal dosage.
"The peptide-functionalised gold nanoparticles that we synthesised are very effective in the deliberate activation or inhibition of angiogenic genes,” said Kanaras.
Applications
As well as cutting the supply of blood to a tumor or cancerous cells, Kanaras et al found that the laser therapy could also be used to open up the membrane to allow more efficient drug delivery.
He added: “We have found that gold nanoparticles can have a dual role in cellular manipulation. Applying laser irradiation, we can use the nanoparticles either to destroy endothelial cells, as a measure to cut the blood supply to tumours, or to deliberately open up the cellular membrane in order to deliver a drug efficiently.”