Gold nanoparticle applied to brachytherapy

Abstract

Cancer is a global public health problem, that consists in a disease is characterized by the uncontrolled growth of anomalous cells that impair the functioning of the body. One of the treatments for cancer is the brachytherapy. This technique a non-invasive treatment in which the radiation is placed close or in contact with the region to be treated, brachytherapy may save the healthy tissues and consequently reduces the amount of side effects. An unexplored strand is nanobrachytherapy, that unites the advantages of brachytherapy with the small size in the nanoparticle (NP), resulting in an even less invasive treatment. Nanotechnology is the science that studies the properties of nanometric materials with the aim of creating new materials with different properties of interest. In view of the synthesis of the NP and their applicabilities, there is a fundamental role that is made to coatings, which have the function of avoiding the aggregation of particles, stabilize and also control their functional properties. Besides being able to add molecules of interest, such as antibiotics and anti-inflammatories. Among the range of coatings, the most outstanding are polyethylene glycol (PEG). PEG improves the surface properties of NP and presents high stability under biomedical conditions. The NP have their size controlled, which facilitates their penetration into the vasculature, in addition to being a non-toxic coating. After the synthesis of gold nanoparticles (Au-NP) was developed, PEG were successfully incorporated into the surface. Incorporation was confirmed by DLS, FT-IR and HRTEM.