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The Toxicity of Nanomaterials in Breast Cancer Cells

Undergraduate #307
Discipline:
Subcategory: Cancer Research

Kristen Gregory - University of Arkansas at Little Rock
Co-Author(s): Vijayalakshmi Dantuluri and Zeid Nima, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Little Rock, AR



Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women and kills 40,000 women in the United States each year. Two important risk factors for developing breast cancer are age and family history. The stage of breast cancer determines the treatment a woman receives and can include: chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery. Chemotherapy and radiation have many side effects because they also kill noncancerous cells. Even with current treatments, there is always a chance that cancer cells will persist. Our hypothesis was that nanomaterials can be effective in killing breast cancer cells. We tested the effectiveness of three types of nanomaterials in killing breast cancer cells. Our methods involved culturing breast cancer cells (Cell line MCF7) for 24 hours in an incubator at 37 C with different concentrations of low-oxidized graphene, high-oxidized graphene, and gold nanorods. Our control was the media with the cancer cells and the experimental concentrations of nanoparticles were 1, 10, 50 and 100 µg. We measured cell growth at three, six, and 24 hours with a microplate reader. Our results showed that cell proliferation decreased for all three nanomaterials and as the concentration of nanomaterials increased. The low-oxidized graphene treatment was most effective in killing breast cancer cells. In conclusion, a high concentration of nanomaterials, especially low-oxidized graphene, will likely decrease cancer cell proliferation. Further work should test a longer time span, different concentrations, and different cancer cell lines.

References: Nbcf. ‘Information, Awareness & Donations: The National Breast Cancer Foundation.’ www.nationalbreastcancer.org. 8 July 2016.
Sharifi, S, Shahed Behzadi, Sophie Laurent, M. Laird Forrest, Pieter Stroevee, and Morteza Mahmoudi. ‘Toxicity of Nanomaterials.’ Chemical Society Reviews. (n.d.): n. pag. Web. 11 July 2016.

Funder Acknowledgement(s): Arkansas Breast Cancer Research Program (UAMS); Arkansas Economic Development Commissions (Science and Technology Division)

Faculty Advisor: Jim Winter, jdwinter@ualr.edu

Role: I centrifuged the cells and added fresh media frequently. I also plated the cells and observed the cells underneath the microscope. Lastly, I did data analysis.

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This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant No. DUE-1930047. Any opinions, findings, interpretations, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of its authors and do not represent the views of the AAAS Board of Directors, the Council of AAAS, AAAS’ membership or the National Science Foundation.

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