Objective: 

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HC) represents a leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide. As chemotherapy and radiotherapy show modest results and surgery is possible in 10% to 30% of patients, new methods of therapy offer the best hope for a better outcome.

Methods: 

Albumin receptor Gp 60 receptor is a tyrosine kinase receptor (RTK) associated with caveolae, invaginations of the plasma membrane that regulate vesicular transport, endocytosis and intracellular signaling. Because Gp 60 is overexpressed in liver cancer cells its targeting using albumin functionalized nanoparticles provides an opportunity to create a new generation of immunonanoconjugates for in vivo imaging and selective photothermal therapy of liver cancer.

Results: 

We report a method of functionalization of carbon nanotubes with human serum albumin for selective targeting of liver cancer cells. We have investigated the interaction of Gp60-R with FITC-CNT-Alb in human HepG2 cells. Transmission electron, confocal microscopy combined with immunochemical staining was used to demonstrate the selective internalization of fluorescently labeled CNT-Alb via Gp 60-R.

We showed that Gp 60-R internalization triggers Cav-1 and PTRF/Cavin translocation from plasma membrane to cytosol and support the critical role of caveolae in CNT-Alb intracellular traveling.

Conclusions: 

The presented results impose albumin as having a good potential for the development of CNTs- based targeting agents in human HC.