Construction of gold nanoparticles by tubular polysaccharide from black fungus and their apoptosis-inducing activities in HepG2 cells

Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) with size of 12 ~ 25 nm were loaded on the dendritic nanotubes (DNTs), which were self-assembled by the triple-helix polysaccharides from black fungus (AF1). The characterization results proved that the AuNPs were dispersed on the surface of DNTs without affecting their tubular structure. Due to the dendritic structure, the loading content of AuNPs could arrived at 46.4%. Moreover, the potential anticancer activities of the complex (DNT-Au) were evaluated by the induction of apoptosis in HepG2 cells. It was found DNT-Au could be taken up by cells and enter into lysosomes, further inducing apoptosis in HepG2 cells by ROS-mediated mitochondrial dysfunction. This work was benefit for the development of natural polysaccharide as a substrate to stabilize nanoparticles in biomedical fields.