DrsB2 is an antimicrobial peptide with antiproliferative activity obtained from South American frog species Phyllomedusa bicolor. In the present study, Gold Nanoparticles were coated with DrsB2 peptide and the resulting DrsB2-AuNPs characterized using UV-Visible spectra. In vitro studies of the DrsB2-AuNPs utilized three cell lines; DU145 (prostate), HCC1395 (breast) and the vero cell line (control). These cell lines were grown in RPMI-1640 medium, supplemented with 10% (v/v) Foetal Bovine Serum. The cells were then plated, treated and incubated at 37oC with 5% CO2. A concentration of 0.5% m/v of the DrsB2 peptide formed the most stable nanoformulation following UV-Vis characterization. Results from in vitro work showed that HCC1395 was the most sensitive to both DrsB2 and DrsB2-AuNPs, while the vero cell line showed the least sensitivity. However, the nanoformulation exhibited a significantly lower percent growth inhibition compared to DrsB2 on both tumor cell lines indicating that, coating Gold Nanoparticles with DrsB2 reduced the ability of DrsB2 to inhibit the growth of the two tumor cell lines. These results pave way for future studies to explore the effect of other forms of nanoparticles like chitosan and solid lipid nanoparticles on the ability of DrsB2 peptide to inhibit tumour cell line growth.

Keywords: Gold Nanoparticles, Dermaseptin B2, nanoformulation, characterization, sensitive, percent growth inhibition