Hemolysis tendency of anticancer nanoparticles changes with type of blood group antigen: An insight into blood nanoparticle interactions.

Different blood groups of ABO system have specific antigen which bestows them with different biochemical properties and hence they can show different hemolytic activity. In this report, hemolytic activity of thiol-functionalized FeO-Au nanoparticles were studied in presence and absence of doxorubicin and the effect of various thiol coatings were correlated towards their hemolysis tendency. The nanoparticles were functionalized with four different amino thiols, cysteamine (CEA), cystamine (CA), cysteine (Cys) and cystine (Cyt) to form FeO-Au CEA, FeO-Au CA, FeO-Au Cys and FeO-Au Cyt nanoparticles which were loaded with anticancer drug, doxorubicin. The functionalization was characterized using ATR-FTIR, HR-TEM, XPS and other spectroscopic methods. Maximum drug encapsulation efficiency of 83% was observed with FeO-Au CA nanoparticles. In-vitro experiments were performed on HeLa cells to check the cellular uptake and cytotoxicity using MTT assay. Hemolytic activity was then analyzed with all the blood groups (positive and negative). The amino acid functionalized, FeO-Au Cys and FeO-Au Cyt nanoparticles, shows lesser hemolysis compared to amino thiol functionalized FeO-Au CEA, and FeO-Au CA nanoparticles. In positive blood groups, the FeO-Au CA nanoparticles shows the highest rate of hemolysis followed by FeO-Au CEA, while the lowest hemolysis rate was observed for FeO-Au Cyt nanoparticles. For negative blood groups, the thiol coated nanoparticles show more abrupt hemolysis rate depending upon the type of antigen.