CC BY
10B-O-7
BIOMEDICAL PHOTONICS
Berberine mediated gold nanoclusters for optical diagnostics and improved photodynamic effect in 2D and 3D cell model
W. G. Pearl1, R. Selvam1, A. V. Karmenyan1, Y. C. Ko1, E. V. Perevedentseva2, C. L. Cheng1
1- Department of Physics, National Dong Hwa University, Hualien 97401, Taiwan 2- P. N. Lebedev Physics Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 119991, Russia
Gold nanoclusters (AuNC) are ultra-small in size that are of significant interest in recent cancer diagnosis and therapeutic advances. Their excellent biocompatibility, good photostability and discrete electronic state makes them a great potential for bioimaging applications [1]. The photosensitive characteristics of AuNCs have the ability to generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the presence of oxygen under near infrared (NIR) laser irradiation and can be used as a photosensitizer for deep tissue photodynamic therapy (PDT) [2]. In this study, AuNCs was synthesized surface-decorated on the Berberine (BBR) molecule and used for highly efficient photodynamic treatment. The AuNCs showed good biocompatibility towards human lung cancerous A549 cell line and was analysed using MTT assay. AuNCs prepared in colloidal solution have non-homogenous size (3±2 nm). However, this inherent disadvantage could be considered as an advantage for emission wavelength tunability [3]. The simultaneous red, green and blue fluorescence emission from the nanoclusters offers a great potential for optical imaging without the need of additional dyes. A549 2D and 3D cell cultures treated with AuNC@BBR when irradiated with 808 nm NIR laser exhibited high phototoxicity effect by increasing the reactive oxygen species (ROS) level and further promoting to cell death. The ROS generated intracellularly was estimated via DCFDA assay and the result showed increase in AuNC concentration in AuNC@BBR complex increased the ROS level. Therefore, AuNC@BBR can be suggested as a promising agent for bioimaging and photodynamic therapy.
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Fig. 1 (i) represent the confocal fluorescence images of A549 cells incorporated with AuNC@BBR complex-(a) optical image; (b) AuNC (Ex/Em : 514/610-660 nm); (c) BBR (Ex/Em : 405/540-565 nm) and (d) merged. (ii) represent the cell viability of A549 cells associated with NIR laser irradiation for 5 minutes (Wavelength : 808 nm; Power density : 70 mW cm-2).
[1] S. M. Van De Looij, E. R. Hebels, M. Viola, M. Hembury, S. Oliveira and T. Vermonden, Gold nanoclusters: imaging, therapy, and theranostic roles in biomedical applications, Bioconjugate Chem., 33, 4-23, (2022).
[2] C. Fan, S. Zhai, W. Hu, S. Chi, D. Song and Z. Liu, Gold nanoclusters as a GSH activated mitochondrial targeting photosensitizer for efficient treatment of malignant tumors, RSC Adv., 11, 21384-21389 (2021).
[3] A. K. Sahoo, S. Banerjee, S. S. Ghosh and A. Chattopadhyay, Simultaneous RGB emitting Au nanoclusters in chitosan nanoparticles for anticancer gene theranostics, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 6, 712-724, (2014).
