Synthesis, Characterization and Anti-Cancer Therapeutic Potential of Withanolide-A with 20nm sAuNPs Conjugates Against SKBR3 Breast Cancer Cell Line

Background: Nanotechnology is gaining emerging interest in advanced drug discovery therapeutics due to their tremendous properties including enhanced delivery of therapeutic payload, extensive surface to volume ratio, high permeability, retention behaviors, etc. The gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are favored due to their advanced features, such as biogenic, tunable physiochemical response, ease in synthesis, and wide range of biomedical applications. The phytochemicals have been focused to design Au nano-carrier-based conjugation for active-targeting drug delivery due to their nano conjugation ability.

Aim: The present study describes the facile synthesis of 20nm spherical AuNPs and their conjugation with reported anti-cancer phytocompound Withanolide-A (1).

Methods: The 20nm sAuNPs were synthesized chemically and characterized their phytochemical gold nanoconjugates through UV-visible spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering (DLS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) imaging techniques. The anti-cancer therapeutic potentials were tested with both nanoconjugates and pure WithanolideA (1) by using SKBR3 breast cancer cells line.

Results: The synthesized sAuNPs showed significant conjugation with Withanolide-A and showed stability. Furthermore, these Au nanoconjugates with Withanolide-A (1) significantly induce blockage of SKBR3 cell growth at half maximal active concentration that compared to pure Withanolide-A (1).

Conclusion: Our findings provide a foundation to further progress how they can overcome cancer drug resistance by conjugating active drugs in combination with AuNPs through optimizing the effective drug concentration and removing the surface barrier.

Keywords: Withania somnifera; Withanolide-A; anti-cancer and incucyte; breast cancer; gold nanoparticle; AuNP.