Study of biological properties of gold nanoparticles: Low toxicity, no proliferative activity, no ability to induce cell gene expression and no antiviral activity

• Published in: Chemico-biological interactions 2023-09, Vol.382, p.110646-110646, Article 110646
• Main Authors: Salesa, Beatriz, Ferrús-Manzano, Patricia, Tuñón-Molina, Alberto, Cano-Vicent, Alba, Assis, Marcelo, Andrés, Juan, Serrano-Aroca, Ángel
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cytotoxicity; Gene expression; Gold nanoparticles; Human keratinocytes; Proliferation
• ISSN: 0009-2797; 1872-7786
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cbi.2023.110646

Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are a fundamental building block of many applications across nanotechnology as they have excellent biosafety which make them promising for a broad range of biomedical applications. Here we explore their in vivo toxicity, cytotoxicity and proliferative capacity in human keratinocyte HaCaT cells, their ability to induce gene expression and their antiviral properties against a surrogate of SARS-CoV-2. These nanoparticles were characterized by transmission electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering and zeta potential. The results showed that these AuNPs with sizes ranging from 10 to 60 nm are non-toxic in vivo at any concentration up to 800 μg/mL. However, AuNP cytotoxicity in human HaCaT cells is time-dependent, so that concentrations of up to 300 μg/mL did not show any in vitro toxic effect at 3, 12 and 24 h, although higher concentrations were found to have some significant toxic activity, especially at 24 h. No significant proliferative activity was observed when using low AuNP concentrations (10, 20 and 40 μg/mL), while the AuNP antiviral tests indicated low or insignificant antiviral activity. Surprisingly, none of the 13 analyzed genes had their expressions modified after 24 h's exposure to AuNPs. Therefore, the results show that AuNPs are highly stable inactive materials and thus very promising for biomedical and clinical applications demanding this type of materials. •Non-toxic materials in vivo at concentrations up 800 μg/mL.•Non-toxic materials at concentrations up to 300 μg/mL in human keratinocytes.•No proliferative capacity in human keratinocytes.•No ability to induce cell gene expression on a battery of 13 genes.•No antiviral activity against enveloped viruses.