Comparative analysis of the toxicity of gold nanoparticles in zebrafish

Abstract

The use of nanoparticles - particles that range in size from 1 to 100 nm - has become increasingly prevalent in recent years, bringing with it a variety of potential toxic effects. Zebrafish embryos were exposed during the 3 day postfertilization period to gold nanospheres (GNSs), gold nanorods (GNRs), GNRs coated with polystyrene sulphate (PSS-GNRs) and GNRs coated with both PSS and polyallamine hydrochloride (PAH-PSS-GNRs). All nanorods were stabilized with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide. GNSs were the least toxic of the nanoparticles studied, with exposure resulting in no significant changes in mortality, hatching or heart rate. Exposure to GNRs and PSS-GNRs resulted in significant increases in mortality and significant decreases in hatching and heart rate. Treatment with GNRs caused significant changes in the expression of a variety of oxidative stress genes. The toxic effects of GNRs were ameliorated by coating them with PSS and, to a more marked extent, with a double coating of PSS and polyallamine hydrochloride.

Toxicological Profile of Plasmonic Nanoparticles in Zebrafish Model

“…The samples treated with GNSs and GNHs presented a higher amount of gold (0.74 µM and 3.3 nM, respectively), in comparison to GNRs (373 µM). On the contrary, in a subsequent study, Patibandla et al found that gold nanorods stabilized with CTAB and functionalized with polystyrene-sulfate (PSS-GNRs) and with both polystyrene-sulfate and polyallamine hydrochloride (PAH/PSS-GNRs) exhibited the highest toxicity in larvae of 80 hpf, followed by the nanopolyhedrons and the nanospheres [54]. The embryos and larvae treated with nanospheres did not present important changes in the hatching, mortality, and heartbeat rates.…”

“…On the other hand, animals exposed to gold nanorods showed important perturbations of different toxicological parameters, including a hatching delay, an increase in the mortality rate, and a decrease in the heartbeat rate at the highest concentrations tested. Moreover, the analysis of the expression of genes associated with oxidative stress by using real-time PCR showed a misregulation in treated embryos and larvae [54]. On the other hand, the analysis of the potential apoptosis induced by gold nanorods investigated by using acridine orange (AO) staining of treated embryos showed signs of cell death in all the examined samples.…”

“…Nanorods coated with PSS and PAH/PSS caused less toxicity in comparison to unfunctionalized GNRs. The different biological behavior of the two groups of nanomaterials was related both to the different shapes of the nanoparticles (spherical and rods) and to surface coating (unfunctionalized versus PSS and PAH/PSS) [54].…”

Plasmonic photothermal microneedle arrays and single needles for minimally-invasive deep in-skin hyperthermia

“…Although effective, all of these approaches have not reported toxicity of GnRs once they are deposited into the skin and/or reach the systemic circulation. Surface chemistry, size and concentration of GnRs have been proposed as the factors responsible for cell toxicity in in vitro studies (using dermal fibroblasts and HaCaT cells among others), [20][21][22][23] and in vivo studies in zebrafish 24,25 and mice. 20,26 Hence, research should focus now on exploiting plasmonic properties of GnRs but avoiding skin deposition or injection routes.…”

Toxicity in vitro and in Zebrafish Embryonic Development of Gold Nanoparticles Biosynthesized Using Cystoseira Macroalgae Extracts

“…64 Also, spherical AuNPs are associated with lesser toxicity risk. 65 In adult zebrafish, biosynthesized AuNPs showed no toxicity, again compared to other metalbased nanoparticles. It is possible that the few existing reports on sub-lethal effects are identifying consequences of the coatings and, to a lesser extent, of their gold core.…”