title: Systematic in vitro toxicological screening of gold nanoparticles designed for nanomedicine applications.
abstract: Gold nanoparticles (AuNP) are increasingly being applied in the biomedical field as therapeutics, contrast agents, and in diagnostic systems, motivating investigations of their toxicity that might arise from accidental exposure. While other work has investigated the toxicological response to gold nanoparticles for industrial purposes, here we have surveyed formulations that have been developed for biomedical use, are in clinical trials or have been FDA-approved. The AuNP library tested contains a range of shapes, including spheres, rods and shells, that possess a range of coatings, such as silica, citrate, lipoprotein, polymaleic acid, polyethylene glycol, DNA and others. Good cytocompatibility for all formulations was observed after 1 h of incubation. However after 24 h exposure, a nanorod and a spherical DNA coated formulation resulted in toxicity. The coating material was the only factor that influenced toxicity. AuNP exposure seemed to have no effect on cell cytoskeleton deformation and cell spreading. Cell uptake, as measured by computed tomography and ICP-OES, as well as TEM images of cells, confirmed strong AuNP uptake for certain formulations, but there was no correlation with toxicity. No glove translocation occurred, therefore, nitrile gloves are an adequate safety precaution for working with the AuNP studied. In conclusion, the majority of AuNP formulations tested have very low adverse effects.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of Pennsylvania, 3400 Spruce St, 1 Silverstein, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
authors.forename: Pratap C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Naha
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of Pennsylvania, 3400 Spruce St, 1 Silverstein, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA; Department of Bioengineering, University of Pennsylvania, 3400 Spruce St, 1 Silverstein, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chhour
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of Pennsylvania, 3400 Spruce St, 1 Silverstein, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA; Department of Bioengineering, University of Pennsylvania, 3400 Spruce St, 1 Silverstein, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA; Department of Cardiology, University of Pennsylvania, 3400 Spruce St, 1 Silverstein, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. Electronic address: david.cormode@uphs.upenn.edu.
authors.forename: David P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Cormode
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001692:Biological Transport; D002460:Cell Line; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D003599:Cytoskeleton / Q000187:drug effects; D006046:Gold / Q000633:toxicity*; D006801:Humans; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000633:toxicity*; D051379:Mice; D050997:Nanomedicine; D018675:Toxicity Tests
chemical_list: D006046:Gold
keywords: Cytotoxicity; Gold nanoparticles; Nanomedicine; Nanoparticle coating; Nanotoxicology