Author(s):
Pombo, Inês de Jesus Martins
Date: 2019
Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10362/88443
Origin: Repositório Institucional da UNL
Subject(s): Cancer; Tumour Microenvironment; Doxorubicin; Gold Nanoparticles; Photothermal therapy; Domínio/Área Científica::Engenharia e Tecnologia::Outras Engenharias e Tecnologias
Description
Cancer is, according to the World Health Organization, the second leading cause of death in the world. Current therapeutic approaches are in most of the cases ineffective and associated with the acquisition of resistance and the development of side effects. Our knowledge in cancer area emerges every day, namely by the growing importance of tumour microenvironment (TME) in cancer progression enabling to better understand tumours response to therapy. The importance of TME led to the development of new strategies to study cancer and new therapeutic approaches. Nanomedicine has been contributing not only with the development of new therapeutic agents (such as gold nanoparticles, AuNPs) but also with new therapeutic strategies that allow to reduce side effects and increase the therapeutic efficacy. In this work we have studied the diffusion of doxorubicin (Dox) in 2D monocultures (HCT116 and HCT116 Dox resistant cells), co-cultures (tumor cells and fibroblasts) and in 3D models of spheroids. We have also studied the effect of AuNPs in Dox diffusion and in HCT116 and HCT116 Dox resistant cells viability in 3D models. The combinatorial effect of AuNPs and irradiation was also studied in the same 3D models.