We studied the physico-chemical properties (size, shape, zeta-potential), cellular internalization and toxicity of gold nanoparticles (NPs) stabilized with the most abundant mammalian protein, collagen. The properties of these gold NPs were compared to the same sized gold NPs coated with synthetic poly(isobutylene-alt-maleic anhydride) (PMA). Intracellular uptake and cytotoxicity were assessed in two cell lines (cervical carcinoma and lung adenocarcinoma cells) by employing inductively-coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) analysis and a cell viability assay based on 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT), respectively. We found that the collagen-coated gold NPs exhibit lower cytotoxicity, but higher uptake levels than PMA-coated gold NPs. These results demonstrate that the surface coating of Au NPs plays a decisive role in their biocompatibility.
Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are the groundwork of a large variety of applications in the biomedical field. Further development and a better understanding of this versatile platform will lead to an expansion of potential applications. In this study, we propose a facile synthesis of AuNPs using hydrogen peroxide as a reducing agent and collagen as a stabilizing agent. Our synthetic approach results in “raspberry”-like AuNPs with a mean diameter of 60 nm, as revealed by electron microscopy. The optical properties of the AuNPs were assessed by UV-Vis and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), and their stability and in vitro cytotoxicity were evaluated as well. HeLa cell viability values were only modestly affected compared to control, with the highest concentration tested displaying a 20% decrease in cellular viability. The dose-dependent cellular internalization in the 20–60 nM range indicate the highest internalization rate at 60 nM and uptake values as high as 35%. This result correlated well with the viability results. These type of anisotropic AuNPs are proposed for biomedical applications such as hyperthermia, contrast agents or imaging. Therefore, our findings offer a platform for potential biological applications such as sensing and imaging, due to their unique physico-chemical features.
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