Nanotechnology opens new perspectives in many science and technology fields through new materials, such as metal nanoparticles. The biomedical field is one of these areas where nanoparticles offer promising application in the diagnosis and therapy of disease, generating biosensors for disease detection, bioimaging, and drug delivery. However, the controversy about whether nanoparticles are inert or exhibit different degrees of toxicity related to their physicochemical properties remains a subject of study and debate. This work shows how gold nanoparticles and nanorods were simultaneously functionalized with 4-aminothiophenol (4-ATP) and methoxypolyethylene glycol thiol (mPEG-SH). Then, folic acid (FA) gold nanoparticle bioconjugates caused diverse biological effects on HeLa and SH-SY5Y cell cultures after 24 h of incubation, when they were evaluated in the range of gold concentrations from 0.17 to 350 μM. We found notable changes in cell metabolic activity, viability, and biomass. 16 nm nanoparticles produced the most enhanced damage for functionalized (AuNPs) and bioconjugated (AuNPs-FA) nanoparticles, which we expected to be more biocompatible when coated with FA. Besides, epifluorescence images showed damage to F-actin microfilaments, adhesion and cell attachment loss, morphology changes (cells became round and detached), presence of blebs, and rupture of cell membrane. These results suggested that both AuNPs and AuNPs-FA have significant biological impact on HeLa and SH-SY5Y cell cultures, whereas gold nanorods showed significant changes only in the metabolic activity of SH-SY5Y cells when they were exposed to gold nanorods of 23 and 27 nm in length with a diameter of 5 nm, and crystal violet did not show evidence of toxicity.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.