Multifunctional Gold Nanoformulations for Prostate Cancer Drug Delivery Applications

This work describes the development of a novel prostate cancer treatment using docetaxel-encapsulated gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) for drug delivery applications. The functionalization of gold nanoparticles with docetaxel is attracting the interest of researchers in nanomedicine because of its advantageous surface flexibility, stability, and good optical qualities. They are the appropriate vehicle for targeted and selective drug delivery to prostate cancer due to their inherent characteristics. The chemical reduction process was used to create AuNPs with a size of 4.5nm, which were then functionalized with polyethylene glycol, folic acid, and docetaxel. Various techniques were used to explore the major physicochemical properties of gold nanoformulations (AuNFs). The AuNFs encapsulation efficiency was determined to be 93%. The AuNFs In-vitro drug release profile was observed in three different kinetic patterns, which mainly follow the Higuchi kinetics. In-vitro cytotoxicity and fluorescence labeling analyses were used to determine the apoptotic quantification and binding affinity (IC
50
) of the AuNFs against the prostate cancer cell line (PC3).