Folate decorated Gold nanoparticles for differentiation of cancer and normal cells

Cancer is one of the main causes of death worldwide. WHO reports was revealed that about 8.8 million persons passed away by cancer in 2015 where Lung, liver colorectal, stomach and breast were most prevalent cancers [1]. Specific detection of cancer cell has the great importance for developing diagnosis methods [2]. Folate receptor (FR) is a target specific biomarker of various cancer which is over-expressed on the membrane of various carcinoma cells [3]. However, FR is also expressed in some normal cells of apical membrane which are not exposed to the blood stream [4]. The FRs binds to the folate (FA) with high affinity (Kd of 0.1-1 nM) where serves the specific attaching to the FRs overexpressed cancer cells. Therefore, FRs have regarded as a favorable biomarker for distinguishing, imaging and counting of cancer cells. The folate decorated gold nanoparticles (AuNPs/FA) were utilized as selective targeting of the HT 29 cells. Fluorescent microscopy imaging investigations revealed that the produced FA conjugated AuNPs could specifically attach to the target FR-positive tumor cells. The fabricated electrochemical-based cytosensor possesses a dynamic range from 250 to 5000 cell.mL-1 with high selectivity. In vitro toxicity tests has shown low toxicity of the synthesized AuNPs where the minimum viability is about 60 %. The proposed AuNPs/FA based cytosensor provides a novel platform for detection of HT 29 cells of colon cancer which could be developed as a point of care cancer diagnosis biodevice in clinics.