| Summary: | Metal complexes functionalized on gold nanoparticles and their biological properties have not been extensively investigated although gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are one of the most useful nanoparticles in industry and medicine. In our search for novel anticancer compound, a zinc(II) Schiff base complex was conjugated to gold nanoparticles to yield AuNP-[TA-Zn(salenphen)] n conjugate (n = number of linked Zn complex units; TA = thioctic acid). This resultant conjugate was characterized by FTIR, UV-visible and fluorescence spectroscopic techniques, and analyzed by zetasizer and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). TEM analysis shows these conjugate particles to be spherical with average dimension of 17 nm. The loading factor n was found to be 1790. Their interaction with bovine serum albumin and 20S proteasome, together with their permeability and anticancer studies, are reported herein. The extremely high cytotoxicity of the nanogold conjugate towards breast and colon cancer cells, compared to cisplatin, could be attributed to the high loading of the moderate anticancer [Zn(salenphen)] on the gold nanospheres and the generation of intracellular reactive oxygen species. Its selective proteasome inhibition of trypsin-like site suggests its usefulness against Plasmodium falciparum. It therefore has great potential as both anticancer and antimalarial drug. © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
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