Describing a modern chemotherapeutic drug prepared by Au nanoparticles to treat the human oral squamous cell carcinoma: A pre-clinical trial study

Recently, many studies have shown that plants increase the cytotoxicity and anticancer potentials of gold nanoparticles against several tumor cell lines especially oral cancers cell lines. Formulating new chemotherapeutic supplements or drugs for the treatment of oral cancers is in the research priority of developed countries. In the present study, we prepared and formulated a modern chemotherapeutic drug by gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) containing Punica granatum peel for the treatment of human oral squamous cell carcinoma. Characterization of AuNPs was done by Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrometry (EDS), UV-Visible Spectroscopy (UV-Vis), Fourier Transformed Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), and Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM). DPPH free radical scavenging test was carried out to evaluate the antioxidant capacities of HAuCl4, P. granatum, and AuNPs. MTT assay was used on normal (HUVEC) and human oral squamous cell carcinoma (HSC-2, HSC-3, HSC-4, and Ca9-22)) cell lines for comparing the anti-human oral squamous cell carcinoma properties of HAuCl4, P. granatum, and AuNPs. UV-Vis revealed an absorption band at 538 nm that is related to the surface plasmon resonance of AuNPs. FT-IR results offered antioxidant compounds in the nanoparticles were the sources of reducing power, reducing gold ions to AuNPs. FE-SEM and TEM images revealed an average diameter of 10-24 nm for the nanoparticles. DPPH test revealed similar antioxidant potentials for AuNPs and butylated hydroxytoluene. Gold nanoparticles had very low cell viability and anti-human oral squamous cell carcinoma properties dose-dependently against HSC-2, HSC-3, HSC-4, and Ca9-22 cell lines without any cytotoxicity on the HUVEC cell line. The best result of cytotoxicity property of AuNPs against the above cell lines was seen in the case of the HSC-3 cell line. According to the above results, the gold nanoparticles containing P. granatum peel can be administrated for the treatment of human oral squamous cell carcinoma in humans.