Biodistribution and Radiosensitizing effect of Gold Nanoparticles in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Nanomedicine had attracted considerable interest in the last years. The possibility to use materials with a nanoscale dimension that have theranostics effects can transform the way to treat the different diseases. These technologies are actively used in lung cancer therapy, that nowadays is one of the principal causes of cancer-related death in the United States and many other countries because the conventional treatments for patients with lung cancer in an advanced stage have reached a therapeutic with a survival rate shallow. Also, the traditional drug delivery methods have a problem to overpass the biological barrier and nanoparticles loaded with a drug can help to transport the compounds to the interested tissue and organs. Among all the different type of particles, the gold nanoparticles cover an essential role due to their tunable size, an excellent biocompatibility and low toxicity that can be more reduced with proper surface functionalization. The aim of this work was the evaluation of biocompatibility and radiosensitization properties of the gold nanoparticle to treat the Non-Small cell lung cancer that regards approximately 80 % of lung cancer cases. Moreover, two different sizes of gold nanoparticles and surface functionalization with bovine serum albumin have been developed and characterized. Some, in vitro studies, are conducted to evaluate the cellular uptake and the interaction between different GNPs and NSCLC cells with and without radiation. Furthermore, various in vivo experiments are conducted to assess the biodistribution of these different GNPs inside the tumor with the use of Computer Tomography (CT) imaging and the radiosensitization effects of these AuNPs to develop the best candidate for the future theranostic platform for cancer therapy.