Surface Orchestration of Gold Nanoparticles Using Cysteamine as Linker and Folate as Navigating Molecule for Synaphic Delivery of Doxorubicin

We report synthesis, characteristics and in vitro tests of folate-conjugated gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and doxorubicin, having Cysteamine as linker. AuNPs were chemically synthesized using sodium citrate. Characterization was done using UV-visible absorption spectroscopy, Field Emission Gun Scanning Electron Microscopy (FEG-SEM), Fourier Transform Infra Red (FTIR) spectroscopy, Particle size Analyzer. Charge distribution was studied by recording Zeta potential. AuNPs were used for attaching folic acid through a linker cysteamine-HCl and finally preparing AuNP/Cysteamine-HCl/Folic acid/Doxorubicin complex. The cell cytotoxicity was studied in MDCK cells (normal cells) and HeLa cells (cancerous cells) having high level of folate receptor expression. In-vitro drug release kinetics was calculated using standard statistical models and was found to follow Hixson-Crowell drug release kinetics model.