Panitumumab (Pan), a highly effective antibody targeting epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), has shown a crucial role in treating metastatic cancers. However, its therapeutic response is limited due to the multiple resistance mechanisms. The current study aimed to develop an effective tumor therapeutic nanomedicine based on PEGylated gold nanoparticles (PEG-GNPs) conjugated with panitumumab as an anti-EGFR monoclonal antibody.

PEG-GNP-Pan nanomedicine was synthesized, characterized, and evaluated for apoptosis induction on KRAS mutant SW-480 colorectal cancer cells combined with photothermal therapy (PTT) using near-infrared (NIR) laser irradiation.

The PEG-GNP-Pan led to nuclear fragmentation and induced apoptosis in the SW480 cell line. The results of our study indicated that combinational therapy (PTT + PEG-GNP-Pan) induced an augmented impact on apoptosis of cancer cells. After 2 hours of exposure to 4 and 16 J/ (s. m2) light doses of NIR irradiation, the IC50 value of PEG-GNP-Pan was significantly decreased compared to the cells treated with GNP-PEG-Pan without NIR laser irradiation or NIR laser irradiation alone.

We introduced an efficient panitumumab nanoformulation combinational therapy with a high capability to overcome resistance and induce apoptosis in colorectal cancer cells compared to free antibodies.