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Folate-conjugated gold nanoparticle as a new nanoplatform for targeted cancer therapy

  • Review – Cancer Research
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Abstract

Conventional cancer treatment methods suffer from many limitations such as non-specificity and low efficacy in discrimination between healthy and cancer cells. Recent developments in nanotechnology have introduced novel and smart therapeutic nanomaterials that basically take advantage of various targeting approaches. Targeted nanomaterials selectively bind to the cancer cells and affect them with minor effects on healthy cells. Folic acid (folate) is an essential molecule in DNA synthesis pathway which is highly needed for cancer cell duplication. Some certain cancer cells overexpress folate receptors higher than normal cells, and this fact is the basis of folate targeting strategy. There are many publications reporting various folate conjugated nanomaterials among which folate-conjugated gold nanoparticles hold great promises in targeted cancer therapy. Gold nanoparticles have been identified as promising candidates for new cancer therapy modalities because of biocompatibility, easy synthesis and functionalization, chemo-physical stability, and optical tunable characteristics. In the last decade, there has been a significant explosion in gold nanoparticles research, with a rapid increase in publications related to the area of biomedicine. Although there are many reports published on “gold nanoparticles” and “folate targeting,” there are a few reports on “folate-conjugated gold nanoparticles” in biomedical literature. This paper intends to review and illustrate the recent advances in biomedicine which have been designed on the basis of folate-conjugated gold nanoparticles.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Nanotechnology, School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), Tehran, Iran

    Hadi Samadian

  2. Clinical Nanomedicine Laboratory, ENT and Head and Neck Surgery Research Center, Rasoul Akram Hospital, Iran University of Medical Sciences (IUMS), Tehran, Iran

    Samira Hosseini-Nami & Seyed Kamran Kamrava

  3. Zahedan University of Medical Sciences (ZaUMS), Zahedan, Iran

    Habib Ghaznavi

  4. Medical Physics Department, School of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences (IUMS), Tehran, Iran

    Ali Shakeri-Zadeh

  5. Diagnostic Nanoparticles Research Core, Iran University of Medical Sciences (IUMS), Tehran, Iran

    Ali Shakeri-Zadeh

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  1. Hadi Samadian
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  2. Samira Hosseini-Nami
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  3. Seyed Kamran Kamrava
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  4. Habib Ghaznavi
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  5. Ali Shakeri-Zadeh
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Correspondence to Habib Ghaznavi or Ali Shakeri-Zadeh.

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Samadian, H., Hosseini-Nami, S., Kamrava, S.K. et al. Folate-conjugated gold nanoparticle as a new nanoplatform for targeted cancer therapy. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol 142, 2217–2229 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00432-016-2179-3

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