Gold Nanoparticle-Delivered miR-26a Restricts Growth and Invasion of Gastric Cancer Cells

This paper aims to estimate the effect of miR-26a delivered by gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) on gastric cancer (GC) cell growth and invasion. In vitro cultured GC cell strains SGC-7901 and MGC- 803 were processed for transfection of miR-26a-mimic, miR-NC, AuNP-ctrl, and AuNP-miR-26a groups. MTT, Transwell, and flow cytometry were employed to evaluate the groups’ impact on cell vitality, invasion, and apoptosis. Western blotting (WB) was used to quantify the levels of apoptosisrelated proteins. In addition, solid tumors in mice were monitored for any changes that occurred under treatment by each group. We observed that overexpressing miR-26a restricted the vitality and invasion, and promoted apoptosis of GC cells; this effect became more significant with the injection of AuNP-delivered miR-26a, which evidently suppressed the growth of tumors in vivo. We conclude that, miR-26a serves as a tumor suppressor gene (TSG) in GC, and its effectiveness may be enhanced through delivery by AuNPs.