A novel nanomedicine, constructed by simultaneously binding L-buthionine-sulfoximine (BSO) and thiolated polyethylene glycol (PEG) to the surface of 100 nm hollow gold nanoparticles (HAuNS), was expected to be used in effective therapeutics of cancer. The current study is aimed at evaluating in vitro the antitumor efficacy of newly synthesized BSO-loaded PEG-SH-HAuNS (BSO@HAuNS) with strong resonances in near-infrared (NIR) as a chemotherapy agents against a line of human lung cancer cells (A549). Here, we conducted cytotoxicity assays and found BSO@HAuNS to efficiently kill human lung cancer cells by ROS generation, indicating that BSO facilitated an increased susceptibility of cancer cells to PEG-SH-HAuNS. Based on flow cytometry analysis, BSO@HAuNS can induce apoptosis and necrosis in mitochondrial-dependent pathway in A549 cells. Our results revealed a novel class of nanomedicine with high potential to be implemented as effective chemotherapy agents for patients diagnosed with unresectable lung cancer.

中文翻译：

---

载有 L-丁硫氨酸-亚砜亚胺的空心金纳米颗粒作为一种用于体外癌细胞治疗的新型纳米药物

通过将 L-丁硫氨酸-亚砜亚胺 (BSO) 和硫醇化聚乙二醇 (PEG) 同时结合到 100 nm 空心金纳米粒子 (HAuNS) 表面构建的新型纳米药物有望用于有效的癌症治疗。目前的研究旨在体外评估新合成的载有 BSO 的 PEG-SH-HAuNS（BSO@HAuNS）在近红外 (NIR) 中具有强共振作为抗人类肺癌细胞系的化疗药物的抗肿瘤功效(A549)。在这里，我们进行了细胞毒性试验，发现 BSO@HAuNS 通过产生 ROS 有效杀死人肺癌细胞，表明 BSO 促进了癌细胞对 PEG-SH-HAuNS 的易感性。基于流式细胞术分析，BSO@HAuNS 可以诱导 A549 细胞线粒体依赖性通路的凋亡和坏死。