Gold Glyconanoparticles as New Tools in Antiadhesive Therapy

TLDR

Glycosphingolipids on cell surfaces and tumor‑associated carbohydrate antigens are key mediators of tumor spread, motivating the development of multivalent tools that mimic these glycoconjugates. The study aims to establish GNPs as a novel multivalent platform for biological applications. The authors synthesized highly soluble, enzyme‑stable, non‑toxic GNPs and evaluated them in a mouse melanoma model, proposing that carbohydrate–carbohydrate interactions mediate initial tumor‑cell recognition. Lacto‑GNPs significantly reduced experimental lung metastasis, providing the first evidence of a biological effect and supporting their potential therapeutic use.

Abstract

Abstract Gold glyconanoparticles (GNPs) have been prepared as new multivalent tools that mimic glycosphingolipids on the cell surface. GNPs are highly soluble under physiological conditions, stable against enzymatic degradation and nontoxic. Thereby GNPs open up a novel promising multivalent platform for biological applications. It has recently been demonstrated that specific tumor‐associated carbohydrate antigens (glycosphingolipids and glycoproteins) are involved in the initial step of tumor spreading. A mouse melanoma model was selected to test glyconanoparticles as possible inhibitors of experimental lung metastasis. A carbohydrate–carbohydrate interaction is proposed as the first recognition step for this process. Glyconanoparticles presenting lactose ( lacto ‐GNPs) have been used successfully to significantly reduce the progression of experimental metastasis. This result shows for the first time a clear biological effect of lacto ‐GNPs, demonstrating the potential application of this glyconanotechnology in biological processes.