The effect of laser irradiation on survivability of breast canser cells sensitised with gold nanoparticles

Breast cancer is among the major killer diseases for women. Currently chemotherapy is the common method used for such cancer treatment. The drawback with this technique is that it kills both normal and cancerous cells. As a result not many cancer patients can survive after the treatment. Thus, alternative techniques need to be considered. The aim of this project is to introduce laser radiation instead of x-ray for cancer treatment. In order to further enhance the hyperthermia effect, gold nanoparticles (AuNP) are injected to couple with cancerous cell. In this work, laser irradiation with three different wavelengths were used for the treatment namely, 1064 nm, and 532 nm produced by Q-switched Nd:YAG laser and 248 nm produced by Krypton Fluoride Excimer laser. AuNPs were produced using pulse laser ablation in liquid technique. The AuNP diameter was varied in the range of 8-18 nm and concentration was prepared by serial dilution within the range of 0.14-4.50 μg/ml. Three different human breast cancer cell lines (MDA-MB-231, MDA-MB-468, and MDA-kb2) and a Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) non-cancerous cell were used to study the cell survivability towards hyperthermia effect with and without the presence of AuNPs. The cell survivability was determined using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay and analyzed using GloMax Multi Microplate Multimode Reader. The results show that survivability rate of MDA-MB-231 cell was 84 percent after treated with 1064 nm laser compared to 74 percent after treated with 532 nm laser. UV radiation from Excimer laser is found to increase the cell survivability rate up to 157 percent. The survivability rate of CHO cell treated with 532 nm laser dropped by 9 percent compared to those of MDA-MB-231, MDAMB- 468 and MDA-kb2 cells which decreased by more than 20 percent after the treatment. The total number of survival cell decreases with the presence of AuNPs. The results indicate that higher concentration and smaller size of AuNPs minimized the MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell survivability. Therefore, hyperthermia effect can be enhanced by using laser irradiation sensitized with AuNP and has great potential for treating cancer.