Ruthenium-based nanoparticles and testing of their anticancer activity

Neoplastic diseases hold the second place of the most common causes of death worldwide. Available treatments include various combinations of surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, hormone therapy, immune therapy and targeted therapy. The emphasis is currently laid on nanomedicine, where new nanosized complexes are developed and applied for the targeted treatment and chemotherapy. The aim is to significantly improve the anticancer effect and decrease the damage to organism. In this thesis, ruthenium nanoparticles with a size of 12–14 nm were synthesized and their surface modified with polyvinylpyrrolidone. Furthermore these were subsequently modified with polyoxyethylene(40)stearate for binding of doxorubicin. These nanoparticles were tested on breast carcinoma cells (MDA-MB-231), ovarian carcinoma cells (A2780) and neuroblastoma cells (UKF-NB-4). Apoptosis and necrosis testing showed 60—64 % increase in apoptosis when comparing ruthenium nanoparticles modified with doxorubicin to nonmodified ruthenium nanoparticles. The modification increased level of oxidative stress in tumorous cells and slightly a genotoxicity to non-tumorous cells, nevertheless the hemocompatibility was significantly improved. Testing has proven with IC50 0.98 g/ml, 3.91 g/ml and 1.95 g/ml higher sensitivity to these cells and confirmed expected anticancer activity. Compared to one of the most common chemotherapeutic agents cisplatin the modified ruthenium nanoparticles are significantly more toxic to cell lines A2780 (IC50=21 µg/ml), MDA-MB-231 (IC50=9 µg/ml) and UKF-NB-4 (IC50=4 µg/ml)