Figure 4

Pyrazinib-functionalised gold nanoparticles (AuNP-P3) decreased metabolic parameters and released mediators in OAC tumour explants in response to ionizing radiation. OAC explants were treated with pyrazinib-functionalised gold nanoparticles (AuNP-P3) at 10 µM, and after 18 h incubation, explants were exposed to 2 Gy X-ray radiation. After 6h incubation, OCR and ECAR were measured in real-time. Tissue-conditioned media were collected after Seahorse measurement and used for multiplex ELISA analysis. (A) AuNP-P3 significantly inhibits OCR in OAC explants exposed to 2 Gy radiation, when compared to the control (0.1% water). ANOVA with Šídák’s multiple comparisons test, * p  <  0.05. Data expressed as mean  ±  SEM (n = 3). (B) Altered released cytokines in AuNP-P3 treated OAC explants subjected to 2 Gy X-ray radiation were measured by multiplex ELISA. Two-tailed unpaired t-test; * p < 0.5. Data expressed as mean  ±  SEM (n = 3). (C) Correlation plots showing significant correlations between the levels of secreted proteins and the metabolic rates in huma OAC fresh explant treated with AuNP-P3 10µM in the presence or absence of 2 Gy radiation. Spearman correlation; blue indicates positive correlations and red indicates inverse negative correlations. The Holm–Bonferroni hoc correction was used to control for multiple comparison testing. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01.