The role of surface modification in the interactions between CdTe quantum dots and ABC transporters in lung cancer cells.

This paper aimed to investigate the role of surface modification on the potential interaction between CdTe quantum dots (QDs) and ABC transporters in doxorubicin-resistant lung cancer (A549/DOX) cells. For this purpose, CdTe QDs modified with -glutathione (GSH), -carboxy (COOH), and -amino (NH) were applied, with the former two QDs exhibiting negative potentials and the latter ones being positive. All the three QDs reduced cell viability in a concentration-dependent manner, with NH-CdTe QDs being more toxic.

The critical role of nanoparticle sizes in the interactions between gold nanoparticles and ABC transporters in zebrafish embryos.

Despite the increasing evidences for adenosine triphosphate-binding cassette (ABC transporters)-mediated efflux of nanoparticles, the universality of these phenomena and the determining factors for the process remained to be clarified. This paper aimed to systemically investigate the role of nanoparticle size in the interactions between adenosine triphosphate-binding cassette (ABC transporters) and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs, 3 nm, 19 nm, and 84 nm, named as Au-3, Au-19, and Au-84) in zebrafish embryos. The results showed that all the three AuNPs induced significant toxicity as reflected by delayed hatching of embryos, decreased glutathione (GSH) contents, and increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels.

Oxidative stress-mediated up-regulation of ABC transporters in lung cancer cells.

This paper aimed to evaluate the role of oxidative stress in the regulation of ABC transporters in human lung cancer (A549) cells facing substrate (doxorubicin, DOX) and nonsubstrate (ethanol, ETH and hydrogen peroxide, HP) chemicals. After 24-h treatment, all the chemicals caused significant cytotoxicity as reflected by the reduction in cell viability and the increase in reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels. Depending on the rescuing effects of ROS scavenger including glutathione (GSH) and Vitamin C, the toxicity dependence on oxidative stress were found to be HP > ETH > DOX.

Long-term stability of a sulfhydryl-Au modification reagent in the biological detection at room temperature.

As a good substrate, gold has been widely applied in the fields of biological diagnosis and biological analysis. By forming Au-S bonds, self-assembled molecules could cause monolayer modification on the gold surface and are further connected with different biomolecules via various functional groups such as -OH, COOH, and NH. In this work, we conducted a comprehensive study on the properties of previously synthesized trithiamantane and its derivatives.

Involvement of ABC transporters in the detoxification of non-substrate nanoparticles in lung and cervical cancer cells.

This paper aimed to systemically investigate the role of adenosine triphosphate-binding cassette (ABC transporters) in the detoxification of non-substrate nanoparticles including titanium dioxide (n-TiO, 5-10 nm) and gold (AuNPs, 3 nm, 15 nm, and 80 nm, named as Au-3, Au-15 and Au-80) in human lung cancer (A549) and human cervical cancer (HeLa) cells. All these nanoparticles were of larger hydrophilic diameters than the channel sizes of ABC transporters, thus should not be the substrates of membrane proteins. After 24-h treatment, they induced significant cytotoxicity as reflected by the reduction in cell viability and glutathione (GSH) contents, as well as the increase in reactive oxygen species (ROS) level.