Emerging Antineoplastic Gold Nanomaterials for Cervical Cancer Therapeutics: A Systematic Review

Cervical cancer, a malignant neoplasm arising from cervix cells, remains one of the leading global cause of women cancer-related deaths. The present study was aimed to conduct a comprehensive systematic review to show the anticancer activity of biological mediated gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) against cervical cancer cells. To identify the articles, a systematic search was performed through the electronic databases including Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct, ProQuest, Embase, and Cochrane for the articles published up to 31 August 2019. Thirty-three articles met our eligibility criteria and were entered into the present systematic review. Our finding showed that twenty-eight articles stated the biogenic AuNPs-induced cytotoxicity against cervical cancer cells, whereas five reports said no cytotoxicity. In this study, the proposed molecular mechanisms of biogenic AuNPs-induced cytotoxicity were discussed. In total, the studies suggested the induction of apoptosis and overgeneration of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) through the AuNPs-treated cervical cells. The information of this study may help the researchers for translation laboratory setting studies to clinical researches. Future investigations are required to represent the efficacy of biogenic AuNPs through in vivo models alone or combination with other anticancer drugs.