Renal Clearable Luminescent Gold Nanoparticles: From the Bench to the Clinic

Abstract

With more and more engineered nanoparticles (NPs) being translated to the clinic, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently issued the latest draft guidance on nanomaterial‐containing drug products with an emphasis on understanding their in vivo transport and nano–bio interactions. Following these guidelines, NPs can be designed to target and treat diseases more efficiently than small molecules, have minimum accumulation in normal tissues, and induce minimum toxicity. In this Minireview, we integrate this guidance with our ten‐year studies on developing renal clearable luminescent gold NPs. These gold NPs resist serum protein adsorption, escape liver uptake, target cancerous tissues, and report kidney dysfunction at early stages. At the same time, off‐target gold NPs can be eliminated by the kidneys with minimum accumulation in the body. Additionally, we identify challenges to the translation of renal clearable gold NPs from the bench to the clinic.

Current outlook on radionuclide delivery systems: from design consideration to translation into clinics

“…7Schematic illustration of multimodal imaging of radiolabeled inorganic NPs: plasmonic NPs for X-ray visualization, magnetic NPs for MRI visualization, C-based for optical imaging. Si-based NPs requires additional functionalization by contrast agents to be visualized(this figure is adopted from Yu et al [189], Wang et al [190], Liu et al [191], Phillips et al [192], Hoffman et al [193] with required copyright permission)…”

RBC Membrane Camouflaged Semiconducting Polymer Nanoparticles for Near-Infrared Photoacoustic Imaging and Photothermal Therapy

“…Moreover, to avoid potential long-term toxicity, the theranostic agents should be biodegradable or clearable within an appropriate period for clinical applications. In particular, the size of nanoparticle has a great influence on the toxicity and clearance characteristics [39][40][41]. For example, small-sized nanoparticles (less than 30 nm) have been proven to exhibit deep tumor penetration [42][43][44].…”

“…For example, small-sized nanoparticles (less than 30 nm) have been proven to exhibit deep tumor penetration [42][43][44]. Meanwhile, it is also well known that ultrasmall-sized nanoparticles possess renal clearance characteristics, such as gold nanoparticles, black phosphorus quantum dots, porphyrin-PEG polymers, and metal/covalent-organic framework nanodots [39,41,[45][46][47]. Thus, elaborately designed nanoparticles with a reasonable size and appropriate surface decoration can balance the demands between body clearance and tumor accumulation.…”

Bidirectional Regulation of Singlet Oxygen Generation from Luminescent Gold Nanoparticles through Surface Manipulation

“…Ultrasmall luminescent gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) including few‐atom gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) and few‐nanometer AuNPs ( d < 3.0 nm) have been widely used in bioimaging, [ 1 ] sensing, [ 2 ] diagnostics, [ 3 ] and therapy. [ 4 ] Among them, the strategy of using luminescent AuNPs as inorganic photosensitizer to generate singlet oxygen ( 1 O 2 ) through photosensitization for photodynamic therapy (PDT) has been drawing increasing attention due to the unique optical properties, low nanotoxicity, and multifunctional surface. [ 5 ] For instance, the ultrasmall captopril‐coated AuNCs (Au 25 (Capt) 18 − ) could generate 1 O 2 under visible or near‐infrared light irradiation; [ 6 ] the AuNCs modified with nuclear targeting peptides could enter the nucleus and produce 1 O 2 under 980 nm light, inducing DNA damage in cell nucleus and apoptosis of HeLa cells.…”