Gold Nanoparticles as an HIV Entry Inhibitor

Gold nanoparticles stabilized with polyethylene glycol were used to study their cytotoxicity and antiviral activity against HIV-1 in the laboratory. The HeLa-CD4-LTR-B-gal cell line was used with gold nanoparticles to determine the cell viability using luminescent assay. The 50% cytotoxicity concentration, IC50 of gold nanoparticles was found to be 1.12 +/- 0.05 mg/ml. M-tropic, T-tropic, dual tropic and resistant isolates were inhibited by gold nanoparticles and their inhibition concentration ranged from 0.05 to 0.12 mg/ml. The mechanism of gold nanoparticles against HIV-1 is not clear but it inhibits the HIV-1 fusion. In this study, the gold nanoparticles were used to analyze their mode of antiviral activity and the experimental results showed that they inhibit the viral entry by binding with gp120 and prevent CD4 attachment. These properties of gold nanoparticles make them as an effective antiviral inhibitor.