Discipline: Biological Sciences
Subcategory: Cancer Research
Session: 1
Honour Adewumi - Jarvis Christian College
Co-Author(s): Shakhawat Bhuiyan, P.h.D and Glendora Carter, P.h.D
Nanoparticles have become one of the most experimented methods of treatment when it comes to cancer treatment. During this research, the type of nanoparticles that are used is gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). Different researchers have established great possibilities of gold nanoparticles’ ability to prohibit the growth of cancer cells especially because of its potentiality to target apoptotic pathways. Cancer is one of the leading causes of death today, different procedures and methods have been taken and are being taken to either stop or reverse this mutation, but there has not yet been a definite solution. The cancer cells that are experimented upon are the MCF (Michigan Cancer Foundation) 7 Human Breast Adenocarcinoma cells. Research questions include finding out how the AuNPs affect the targeted pathways of the MCF-7 breast cancer cells. In this study, both synthesized and purchased nanoparticles were utilized and their effects were compared at different concentrations with a constant initial number of cells as the control. The expectations of this research are that after analysis of the targeted pathways, the induced apoptosis is understood. Records were taken not only on the viability MCF-7 cells but also with relevance to the protein by quantification using the SkanIt Software 4.1 measured at 562 nm. Western Blotting, MTT assay, Caspase 3and 8 assay, DNA electrophoresis, and Real-time PCR were performed to analyze the pathway. A growth curve was obtained to understand the growth possibilities of the specific cell line. The gold nanoparticles were synthesized using the Turkevich method which involves Gold III Chloride Trihydride and Sodium Citrate at specific percentages in heated distilled water. The nanoparticles were measured at 525 nm. A set size of 30 nm gold nanoparticles was utilized for the treatment of the cells. The cells were treated at 5, 10, 15 and 20 µg/ml concentrations of the gold nanoparticles for consecutive 5 days. Images of the morphology of the cells after treatment were obtained. After 24 hours of treatment, records showed that cells viability had decreased to 33% at the concentration of 15 µg/ml gold nanoparticle. Proteins were extracted from all the samples and results illustrated that there was a gradual decrease in protein concentrations as treatment increased. The DNA was shown to be fragmented at 15µg/ml of nanoparticles and MTT assay illustrated about 95% decreased in cells viability after 72 hours. Caspase 3 and 8 assays also showed a gradual increase directly proportional to the treatment concentration. Western blot analysis showed fainter bands as treatment increased in the p44/42 MAP Kinase pathway. RT-PCR conveyed a constant Relative Fluorescence Unit (RFU) for β-actin and changed in the p53 tumor suppressor pathway. The above results conclude that treatment of MCF-7 human breast adenocarcinoma cells with gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) is a promising remedial path.
Funder Acknowledgement(s): The National Science Foundation ; The Welch Foundation
Faculty Advisor: Shakhawat Bhuiyan, sbhuiyan@jarvis.edu
Role: I did all parts of this research.