| 초록 |
Recentely, several reports revealed that once heparin is internalized into the cells, it triggers acute apoptosis. To utilize this remarkable property of heparin to targeted induction of apoptosis, we prepared heparin immobilized gold nanoparticle functionalized with arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (RGD) - poly(ethyleneglycol) conjugate (Aunp-Hep/PEG-RGD). Small peptide, RGD was conjugated at the distal end of PEG (MW 3400) for the purpose of tumor-targeted delivery of nanoparticles to αvβ3 integrin over-expressing cancer cells by receptor-mediated endocytosis. End thiol-modified heparin was immobilized on the gold nanoparticle to function as an anti-cancer agent through intracellularly delivered heparin-induced apoptosis. The present nanoparticles (Aunp-Hep/PEG-RGD) effectively delivered free heparin molecules into the αvβ3 integrin over-expressing cancer cells and ultimately induced considerable apoptotic death of the cancer cells. |
