User:Sunday Seeker/sandbox

I am working on editing two articles: flowers of sulfur and gold nanoparticles in chemotherapy

Drug vectorization
Another way in which AuNPs can be used in cancer therapy is as agents for targeted drug delivery. Research shows that AuNPs can be easily functionalized and conjugated with a variety of molecules, including chemotherapeutic drugs, such as Doxorubicin. One major complication with the current methods of treating cancer with chemotherapy is that treatment is not optimized to specifically target cancer cells and the widespread distribution of chemotherapeutic drugs throughout the body can cause harmful side effects such as naseua, hair loss, and cardiotoxicity. Since many of the characteristics of AuNPs allow them to target cancer cells specifically and accumulate within tumor cells, these molecules can act as tumor-targeting drug delivery systems. Once within the tumor microenvironment, these complexes dissociate and release the Doxorubicin, allowing the drug to take effect and cause apoptosis.

Research shows that 80~90% of breast cancer’s tumor cells have estrogen receptors[13] and 60~70% of prostate cancer’s tumor cells have androgen receptors.[14] These significant amount of hormone receptors play a role in intermolecular actions. This role is now used by targeting and therapeutic ligands on gold nanoparticles to target tissue-selective anti-tumor drug delivery.

In order to have multiple targeting and therapeutic ligands bind with gold nanoparticles, the gold nanoparticles has undergo polymer stabilization. For example, anti-estrogen molecules with thiolated PEG bind with gold nanoparticles via Au-S bonds, this process forms thiolate protected gold nanoparticles.[15]

PEGylated gold nanoparticles

Gold nanoparticles have their advantages in drug vectorization. It can pack several different sizes and types of dendrimer (branched molecules). And several different types of ligand can be added to gold nanoparticles, in order to gain different functions, for example, targeting tumor cells.[citation needed]

Docetaxel is packed into PEGylated gold nanoparticles[16] Docetaxel is an anti-mitotic chemotherapy medicine which showing great performance in clinical trial.[17] Docetaxel was approved by FDA, to treat several different kinds of cancer. i.e. breast cancer(include locally advanced or metastatic).[17]