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Selective Killing of Breast Cancer Cells by Doxorubicin‐Loaded Fluorescent Gold Nanoclusters: Confocal Microscopy and FRET
Author(s) -
Chattoraj Shyamtanu,
Amin Asif,
Jana Batakrishna,
Mohapatra Saswat,
Ghosh Surajit,
Bhattacharyya Kankan
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
chemphyschem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.016
H-Index - 140
eISSN - 1439-7641
pISSN - 1439-4235
DOI - 10.1002/cphc.201500982
Subject(s) - nanoclusters , förster resonance energy transfer , doxorubicin , fluorescence , confocal microscopy , confocal , biophysics , fluorescence microscope , intracellular , chemistry , cancer cell , microscopy , materials science , nanotechnology , cancer , pathology , biochemistry , medicine , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , optics , chemotherapy , physics , surgery
Fluorescent gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) capped with lysozymes are used to deliver the anticancer drug doxorubicin to cancer and noncancer cells. Doxorubicin‐loaded AuNCs cause the highly selective and efficient killing (90 %) of breast cancer cells (MCF7) (IC 50 =155 n m ). In contrast, the killing of the noncancer breast cells (MCF10A) by doxorubicin‐loaded AuNCs is only 40 % (IC 50 =4500 n m ). By using a confocal microscope, the fluorescence spectrum and decay of the AuNCs were recorded inside the cell. The fluorescence maxima (at ≈490–515 nm) and lifetime (≈2 ns), of the AuNCs inside the cells correspond to Au 10–13 . The intracellular release of doxorubicin from AuNCs is monitored by Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) imaging.