An investigation into the biological activity of gold anti-arthritic compounds and gold nanoparticles

The overall aim of this project was to compare the interactions of anti-arthritic gold(I) compounds and gold nanoparticles, with RAW264.7 macrophage cells and the redox protein thioredoxin reductase. Cytotoxicity studies showed that auranofin exhibited the greatest toxicity towards the macrophages, with an IC50 of 4 μM after 24 h treatment. Aurothiosulfate and aurothiomalate proved to be far less toxic than auranofin, whilst citrate-stabilised gold nanoparticles were non-toxic when administered at a concentration of 60 μM. Cellular gold uptake experiments were performed using graphite furnace atomic absorption spectroscopy. The results of these experiments showed that treatment of the macrophages with gold nanoparticles led to greater levels of gold incorporation than treatment with aurothiomalate, aurothiosulfate or auranofin.