Aptamer-functionalized gold nanoparticles for specific detection of human breast cancer cells

• Main Author: Lim, Florence Si Qi
• Other Authors: School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Bioengineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/61547
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The incidence of breast cancer for female worldwide is increasing. It has become of utmost importance to have detection methods that can selectively and sensitively detect cancerous cells at early stages whereby population of cancer cells are still low. Early detection of cancer is essential for better survivor, but the efficacy of early detection is often limited by the lower level of cancerous cells in early stages, which are often hard to be detected with current technology. The focus of research in using gold nanostructures as biosensor has vastly increased in the past decades in the field of biomedical area. Here, we have been interested to modified gold nanostructures with aptamer as biomarkers to detect breast cancer cells. The aptamer-functionalized gold nanostructures enabled the conjugates to detect the specific ligand expressed on the surface of breast cancer cells. The overexpression of MUC1 proteins on surface of breast cancer cells has led to possible detection in the early stages of cancer. By developing an aptamer-guided gold nanostructures which are MUC1-positive expressed, we can detect the cancerous cells in nascent stage. The gold nanoparticles were modified with MCT aptamer which binds specifically and selectively to MCF-7 breast cancer cells. The aptamer-functionalized gold nanostructures were formulated with hoechst to stain the nucleus of the cancer cells after they have bind selectively, and were observed under dark field microscope to observe the scattered light from the bound gold nanoparticles.