Highly sensitive mixed molecular nanostructures of glutamine and doxorubicin on gold for targeted recognition of A2780 cancer cells using impedance spectroscopy and quartz crystal microbalance

Abstract

Mixed molecular nanostructures, formed on the surface of gold, provide exceptional assemblies and display unique properties for different purposes, especially, recognition of biomolecules, drug delivery, and cancer cell sensing. In this study, a targeted molecular nanostructure system is prepared on gold, and studied for recognition of cancer cells. The system consists of doxorubicin (Dox), an effective anticancer chemotherapy agent but with cardiotoxicity side effect, and glutamine (Glu), a targeting agent with a potential to reduce the cardiotoxicity induced by Dox, immobilized adjacently on gold via mercaptopropionic acid linker. The preparation process is followed by several surface and solution analysis techniques, and the obtained system is characterized as Au-MPA-(Glu-‖-Dox). The ability of the system to recognize the Human Ovarian Carcinoma (A2780) cells is studied in comparison with Human Caucasian Foetal Foreskin Fibroblast (HFFF2) as nonmalignant cells using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) as transaction methods. The system has shown a rapid uptake kinetics (t1/2∼7.7 ± 0.1 min) for A2780 cells. The Au-MPA-(Glu-‖-Dox) system showed high sensitivity in recognition of the A2780 cancer cells (ΔRct of ∼1430 ± 43.0 kΩ and Δf of ∼2500 ± 18 Hz for 5 × 105 cell/mL of A2780 cells). © 2021 Elsevier B.V.