Ultrasmall
nanoparticles (US-NPs; <20 nm in hydrodynamic size)
are now included in a variety of pharmacological and cosmetic products,
and new technologies are needed to detect at high sensitivity the
passage of small doses of these products across biological barriers
such as the skin. In this work, a diffusion cell adapted to positron
emission tomography (PET), a highly sensitive imaging technology,
was developed to measure the passage of gold NPs (AuNPs) in skin samples
in continuous mode. US-AuNPs (3.2 nm diam.; TEM) were functionalized
with deferoxamine (DFO) and radiolabeled with 89Zr(IV) (half-life: 3.3 days, matching the timeline of diffusion
tests). The physicochemical properties of the functionalized US-AuNPs
(US-AuNPs-PEG-DFO) were characterized by FTIR (DFO grafting; hydroxamate
peaks: 1629.0 cm–1, 1569.0 cm–1), XPS (presence of the OC–N C 1s peak of DFO at 287.49
eV), and TGA (organic mass fraction). The passage of US-AuNPs-PEG-DFO-89Zr(IV) in skin samples was measured by PET, and
the diffusion parameters were extracted thereby. The signals of radioactive
US-AuNPs-PEG-DFO-89Zr(IV) leaving the donor
compartment, passing through the skin, and entering the acceptor compartment
were detected in continuous at concentrations as low as 2.2 nM of
Au. The high-sensitivity acquisitions performed in continuous allowed
for the first time to extract the lag time to the start of permeation,
the lag time to start of the steady state, the diffusion coefficients,
and the influx data for AuNPs permeating into the skin. PET could
represent a highly valuable tool for the development of nanoparticle-containing
topical formulations of drugs and cosmetics.