Anticancer activity and histological changes in albino male mice injected with gold nanoparticles

Cancer is a global health problem and the second-leading cause of death worldwide. Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) are used in a wide range of medical fields, particularly in cancer diagnosis and treatment, therapy, and anti-inflammation. However, the question that always arises is whether GNPs affect normal, healthy cells when used as treatment. Therefore, GNPs were used in this research to treat muscle and brain cancer and to demonstrate its effect on tissues in living organs in healthy mice. The objectives were to determine the efficiency of GNPs in killing cancer cells through cytotoxicity assay, examine the effect of GNPs on different healthy organ tissues, and show the influence of different GNP concentrations, cell types, and incubation times through in vitro experiments. Two cell lines, AMGM (brain cancer cell line) and RD (muscle cancer cell line), at different concentrations (4.5×1012 – 6×1010 particles mL-1) with two incubation periods (24 and 72h) were used in this study. Ten adult male albino mice were randomly distributed into two groups. The experiment was extended for 10 days to study the effect of a single dose of 250 µl of GNPs (4.5×1012 particles mL-1) administered through intraperitoneal injection by examining the histological changes of the liver, kidney, and spleen of the mice. In the cytotoxicity experiment, high GNP concentrations had the greatest effect at 24h, and the RD cell line was more sensitive than the AMGM cell line at 72h. Histological tests of the mouse organs revealed different changes such as severe hepatic granulomas, renal apoptosis, amyloidosis of spleen tissues, and inflammation with fibrosis of intestinal tissues. GNPs are an influential factor in cancer therapy, and their effects vary with cell line type, exposure time, and dose. They also cause histological harm (fibrosis, inflammation, and apoptosis) on vital organs.