Design and Delivery of Water Soluble Gold Nanoparticles Containing Mixed Monolayers of Thiolated Polyethylene Glycol and Peptides to HeLa Cells

Abstract

Drug delivery has become a major area of research interest today, particularly in cancer research. Many of the current cancer treatments have many undesirable side effects on patients leaving them weak and susceptible to other illness. Targeted drug delivery at the molecular level has many positive applications. First one could target a cancer therapeutic drug directly to the site of infection and reduce the many side effects associated with cancer therapy. Also less medication would be needed also reducing some of the side effects associated with current cancer therapeutics. Many researchers have turned their attention to nanotechnology as a way to address such cancer drug delivery issues. This thesis presents the design of a two-phase type water-soluble gold nanoparticle. The gold nanoparticle is passivated with a peptide sequence that has known cell-penetrating abilities. The thiolated polyethylene glycol imparts stability to the gold nanoparticle enabling it to stay in a stable state and remain functional in high salt concentrations such as inside of a human body. Presented in this thesis is data to confirm the preliminary results of a two-phase type gold nanoparticle passivated with thiolated polyethylene glycol and Arginine9, which could facilitate travel into the cytosol and nuclear regions of a HeLa cell. This type of delivery system has the potential of a possible future drug delivery vector.