Table 2.
Overview of Au-NPs/FA and their applications
| NPs | Drugs/targeting agent | Applications | References |
|---|---|---|---|
| Glutathione-capped Au-NPs | FA | HeLa and mouse fibroblast (FB) cells | 35 |
| Polyethylenimine-entrapped Au-NPs | FA | KB-HFAR cells and KB-LFAR cells | 37 |
| Negatively charged Au-NPs with the transferrin targeting ligands and positively charged Au-NPs with the folate receptor targeting ligands | FA | Prostate cancer cells | 41 |
| Au-NPs prepared by using a strong antioxidant quercetin and dextran sulfate as a stabilizing agent | FA | NIH 3T3 FB and human breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7) | 42 |
| Au-NPs functionalized with FA | FA | Cervix cancer cells | 43 |
| Positively charged Au-NPs capped with folate quaternary chitosan | FA | Human umbilical vein endothelial cells | 44 |
| Gum kondagogu-capped Au-NPs | FA | A549 (lung cancer) cells | 38 |
| Folate-conjugated Au-NPs | FA | KB cancer cells and L929 normal cells | 45 |
| Folate-conjugated gold-photoactive polymer NPs | FA | C6 glioma brain cancer cells | 46 |
| Au-NPs on FA-modified dendritic mesoporous silica-coated reduced graphene oxide nanosheets | FA | MCF-7 (human breast carcinoma cell lines) and A549 (human lung carcinoma cell lines) | 39 |
| Au-NPs/dimethyldioctadecylammonium/bromide/dioleoylphosphatidylethanolamine | FA | MCF-7 and A549 | 47 |
| Modified Au-NPs with covalently bonded thiol linkers | FA | MDA-MB-231 | 48 |
| Gold nanorods/amphiphilic polysaccharide-based graft copolymer and an amino derivative of the α,β-poly(N-2-hydroxyethyl)-d, l-aspartamide | FA | 16HBE and HDFa | 49 |
| Gold nanobipyramids | FA | MCF-7 | 40 |
| Biocapped Au-NPs using hirsutus leaf extract | FA | HeLa, RKO, and A549 | 50 |
| FA-Au@poly(acrylic acid)/mesoporous calcium phosphate Janus NPs | FA | HeLa | 51 |
| Au-NPs modified with thionine | FA | A549 | 52 |
| Poly(ethylene glycol)-coated gold@iron oxide core–shell NPs | FA | KB and MCF-7 | 53 |
Abbreviations: Au-NPs, gold nanoparticles; FA, folic acid; HBE, human bronchial epithelial cells; HDFa, human dermal fibroblasts; MDA-MB, typical human breast cancer cells; RKO, human colon carcinoma cell line; HeLa, cell line derived from cervical cancer cells; HFAR, high folate receptor; LFAR, low folate receptor; HFAR, high folic acid receptor; LFAR, low folic acid receptor; NPs, nanoparticles.