Mitochondria as a target for radiosensitisation by gold nanoparticles

While Gold Nanoparticles (GNPs) have been extensively studied as radiosensitisers in recent years, there is a lack of studies of their impact on targets outside of the cell's nuclear DNA. We present Monte Carlo simulations of the energy deposited by X-ray irradiation in mitochondria in cells wi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of physics. Conference series 2017-01, Vol.777 (1), p.12008
Main Authors: McMahon, S J, McNamara, A L, Schuemann, J, Prise, K M, Paganetti, H
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Clusters
Cytoplasm
Gold
Mitochondria
Mitochondrial DNA
Nanoparticles
Physics
X ray irradiation
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Summary:While Gold Nanoparticles (GNPs) have been extensively studied as radiosensitisers in recent years, there is a lack of studies of their impact on targets outside of the cell's nuclear DNA. We present Monte Carlo simulations of the energy deposited by X-ray irradiation in mitochondria in cells with and without cytoplasmic GNPs. These simulations show that the presence of GNPs within the cytoplasm can significantly increase (3-4 fold) the number of ionisation clusters of both small and large sizes. As these clusters are strongly associated with DNA damage, these results suggest that mitochondrial DNA may be a significant target for GNP radiosensitisation when the nanoparticles cannot penetrate the cell nucleus.
ISSN:1742-6588
1742-6596
DOI:10.1088/1742-6596/777/1/012008