Differential Effects Of Gold Nanoparticles And Ionizing Radiation On Cell Motility Between Primary Human Colonic And Melanocytic Cells And Their Cancerous Counterparts

This study examined the effects of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and/or ionizing radiation (IR) on the viability and motility of human primary colon epithelial (CCD841) and colorectal adenocarcinoma (SW48) cells as well as human primary epidermal melanocytes (HEM) and melanoma (MM418-C1) cells. AuNPs up to 4 mM had no effect on the viability of these cell lines. The viability of the cancer cells was similar to 60% following exposure to 5 Gy. Exposure to 5 Gy X-rays or 1 mM AuNPs showed the migration of the cancer cells similar to 85% that of untreated controls, while co-treatment with AuNPs and IR decreased migration to similar to 60%. In the non-cancerous cell lines gap closure was enhanced by similar to 15% following 1 mM AuNPs or 5 Gy treatment, while for co-treatment it was similar to 22% greater than that for the untreated controls. AuNPs had no effect on cell re-adhesion, while IR enhanced only the re-adhesion of the cancer cell lines but not their non-cancerous counterparts. The addition of AuNPs did not enhance cell adherence. This different reaction to AuNPs and IR in the cancer and normal cells can be attributed to radiation-induced adhesiveness and metabolic differences between tumour cells and their non-cancerous counterparts.