Plasmonresonance gold nanoparticles as drug carriers and optical labels for cytological investigations

In this paper we report on the investigation of the influence of plasmon resonant gold nanoparticles (PRGNPs) and their complex with anticancer drug prospidin to the physiological functions (endocytosis, respiratory activity, viability) of tumor cell lines HeLa and SPEV2. We used the combination of several microscopic regimes to register the light scattering and fluorescence for visualization the cells and PRGNPs. The citratestabilized colloidal gold with average particle diameter 50 nm was used as plasmon resonant labels. The use of PRGNPs with subsequent staining by cationic fluorescent dye acridine orange enabled to visualize the labels by light microscopy and estimate their localization inside the cells by the confocal microscopy. We showed the enhancement of cytostatic activity of prospidin in the complex with the colloidal gold.