Recent Advances in Gold Nanoformulations for Cancer Therapy

Background: Nanotechnology based diagnostic and therapeutic approaches have attracted great interest in oncology over the last few years. Especially gold (Au)-based nanoformulations have gained a lot of attention in cancer detection, therapy and monitoring of outcome. The current report provides a summary of methods how to prepare different types of synthetic gold nanoformulations and their potential applications in boosting photothermal and photodynamic tumor therapies and in radiosensitization. Method: A comprehensive review of the literature on the current status of gold nanoparticles preparation methods and their application for cancer therapy was performed. Results: The intrinsic properties of the nanoparticles such as shape, size, electronic, optical, physicochemical and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) features could be precisely adjusted through various synthetic approaches depending on the further application of particles in biomedicine. According to various reports, gold nanoformulations have shown promising potential as adjuvants for photothermal and photodynamic therapies and as radiosensitizers for radiation therapy. Conclusion: Synthetic development of gold nanoformulations became an important strategy in nanomedicine. Nanocomplexes demonstrated a therapeutic potential and could be translated into clinical strategies for cancer therapy.