Gold Nanoparticle Transport in the Injured Kidneys with Elevated Renal Function Biomarkers.

Renal function biomarkers such as serum blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine (Cr) serve as key indicators for guiding clinical decisions before administering kidney-excreted small-molecule agents. With engineered nanoparticles increasingly designed to be renally clearable to expedite their clinical translation, understanding the relationship between renal function biomarkers and nanoparticle transport in diseased kidneys becomes crucial to their biosafety in future clinical applications. In this study, renal-clearable gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are used as X-ray contrast agents to noninvasively track their transport and retention in cisplatin-injured kidneys with varying BUN and Cr levels. The findings reveal that AuNP transport is significantly slowed in the medulla of severely injured kidneys, with BUN and Cr levels elevated to 10 times normal. In mildly injured kidneys, where BUN and Cr levels only four to five times higher than normal, AuNP transport and retention are not predictable by BUN and Cr levels but correlate strongly with the degree of tubular injury due to the formation of gold-protein casts in the Henle's loop of the medulla. These results underscore the need for caution when employing renal-clearable nanomedicines in compromised kidneys and highlight the potential of renal-clearable AuNPs as X-ray probes for assessing kidney injuries noninvasively.

Physiological principles underlying the kidney targeting of renal nanomedicines.

Kidney disease affects more than 10% of the global population and is associated with considerable morbidity and mortality, highlighting a need for new therapeutic options. Engineered nanoparticles for the treatment of kidney diseases (renal nanomedicines) represent one such option, enabling the delivery of targeted therapeutics to specific regions of the kidney. Although they are underdeveloped compared with nanomedicines for diseases such as cancer, findings from preclinical studies suggest that renal nanomedicines may hold promise. However, the physiological principles that govern the in vivo transport and interactions of renal nanomedicines differ from those of cancer nanomedicines, and thus a comprehensive understanding of these principles is needed to design nanomedicines that effectively and specifically target the kidney while ensuring biosafety in their future clinical translation. Herein, we summarize the current understanding of factors that influence the glomerular filtration, tubular uptake, tubular secretion and extrusion of nanoparticles, including size and charge dependency, and the role of specific transporters and processes such as endocytosis. We also describe how the transport and uptake of nanoparticles is altered by kidney disease and discuss strategic approaches by which nanoparticles may be harnessed for the detection and treatment of a variety of kidney diseases.

Observation of Magnetism-Induced Topological Edge State in Antiferromagnetic Topological Insulator MnBi4Te7.

Breaking time reversal symmetry in a topological insulator may lead to quantum anomalous Hall effect and axion insulator phase. MnBi4Te7 is a recently discovered antiferromagnetic topological insulator with TN ∼ 12.5 K, which is composed of an alternatively stacked magnetic layer (MnBi2Te4) and nonmagnetic layer (Bi2Te3). By means of scanning tunneling spectroscopy, we clearly observe the electronic state present at a step edge of a magnetic MnBi2Te4 layer but absent at nonmagnetic Bi2Te3 layers at 4.5 K. Furthermore, we find that as the temperature rises above TN the edge state vanishes, while the point defect induced state persists upon an increase in temperature. These results confirm the observation of magnetism-induced edge states. Our analysis based on an axion insulator theory reveals that the nontrivial topological nature of the observed edge state.

Tuning the In†Vivo Transport of Anticancer Drugs Using Renal-Clearable Gold Nanoparticles.

Precise control of in vivo transport of anticancer drugs in normal and cancerous tissues with engineered nanoparticles is key to the future success of cancer nanomedicines in clinics. This requires a fundamental understanding of how engineered nanoparticles impact the targeting-clearance and permeation-retention paradoxes in the anticancer-drug delivery. Herein, we systematically investigated how renal-clearable gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) affect the permeation, distribution, and retention of the anticancer drug doxorubicin in both cancerous and normal tissues. Renal-clearable AuNPs retain the advantages of the free drug, including rapid tumor targeting and high tumor vascular permeability. The renal-clearable AuNPs also accelerated body clearance of off-target drug via renal elimination. These results clearly indicate that diverse in vivo transport behaviors of engineered nanoparticles can be used to reconcile long-standing paradoxes in the anticancer drug delivery.

Dose Dependencies and Biocompatibility of Renal Clearable Gold Nanoparticles: From Mice to Non-human Primates.

While dose dependencies in pharmacokinetics and clearance are often observed in clinically used small molecules, very few studies have been dedicated to the understandings of potential dose-dependent in vivo transport of nanomedicines. Here we report that the pharmacokinetics and clearance of renal clearable gold nanoparticles (GS-AuNPs) are strongly dose-dependent once injection doses are above 15 mg kg-1 : high dose expedited the renal excretion and shortened the blood retention. As a result, the no-observed-adverse-effect-level (NOAEL) of GS-AuNPs was >1000 mg kg-1 in CD-1 mice. The efficient renal clearance and high compatibility can be translated to the non-human primates: no adverse effects were observed within 90 days after intravenous injection of 250 mg kg-1 GS-AuNPs. These fundamental understandings of dose effect on the in vivo transport of ultrasmall AuNPs open up a pathway to maximize their biomedical potentials and minimize their toxicity in the future clinical translation.

Targeting orthotopic gliomas with renal-clearable luminescent gold nanoparticles.

A major clinical translational challenge in nanomedicine is the potential of toxicity associated with the uptake and long-term retention of non-degradable nanoparticles (NPs) in major organs. The development of inorganic NPs that undergo renal clearance could potentially resolve this significant biosafety concern. However, it remains unclear whether inorganic NPs that can be excreted by the kidneys remain capable of targeting tumors with poor permeability. Glioblastoma multiforme, the most malignant orthotopic brain tumor, presents a unique challenge for NP delivery because of the blood-brain barrier and robust blood-tumor barrier of reactive microglia and macroglia in the tumor microenvironment. Herein, we used an orthotopic murine glioma model to investigate the passive targeting of glutathione-coated gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) of 3 nm in diameter that undergo renal clearance and 18-nm AuNPs that fail to undergo renal clearance. Remarkably, we report that 3-nm AuNPs were able to target intracranial tumor tissues with higher efficiency (2.3× relative to surrounding non-tumor normal brain tissues) and greater specificity (3.0×) than did the larger AuNPs. Pharmacokinetics studies suggested that the higher glioma targeting ability of the 3-nm AuNPs may be attributed to the longer retention time in circulation. The total accumulation of the 3-nm AuNPs in major organs was significantly less (8.4×) than that of the 18-nm AuNPs. Microscopic imaging of blood vessels and renal-clearable AuNPs showed extravasation of NPs from the leaky blood-tumor barrier into the tumor interstitium. Taken together, our results suggest that the 3-nm AuNPs, characterized by enhanced permeability and retention, are able to target brain tumors and undergo renal clearance.

Luminescent Gold Nanoparticles with Size-Independent Emission.

Size-independent emission has been widely observed for ultrasmall thiolated gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) but our understanding of the photoluminescence mechanisms of noble metals on the nanoscale has remained limited. Herein, we report how the emission wavelength of a AuNP and the local binding geometry of a thiolate ligand (glutathione) on the AuNP are correlated, as these AuNPs emit at different wavelengths in spite of their identical size (ca. 2.5 nm). By using circular dichroism, X-ray absorption, and fluorescence spectroscopy, we found that a high Au-S coordination number (CN) and a high surface coverage resulted in strong Au(I) -ligand charge transfer, a chiral conformation, and 600 nm emission, whereas a low Au-S CN and a low surface coverage led to weak charge transfer, an achiral conformation, and 810 nm emission. These two size-independent emissions can be integrated into one single 2.5 nm AuNP by fine-tuning of the surface coverage; a ratiometric pH response was then observed owing to strong energy transfer between two emission centers, opening up new possibilities for the design of ultrasmall ratiometric pH nanoindicators.

Noninvasive Staging of Kidney Dysfunction Enabled by Renal-Clearable Luminescent Gold Nanoparticles.

As a "silent killer", kidney disease is often hardly detected at an early stage but can cause lethal kidney failure later on. Thus, a preclinical imaging technique that can readily differentiate between the stages of kidney dysfunction is highly desired for improving our fundamental understanding of kidney disease progression. Herein, we report that in vivo fluorescence imaging, enabled by renal-clearable near-infrared-emitting gold nanoparticles, can noninvasively detect kidney dysfunction, report on the dysfunctional stages, and even reveal adaptive function in a mouse model of unilateral obstructive nephropathy, which cannot be diagnosed with routine kidney function markers. These results demonstrate that low-cost fluorescence kidney functional imaging is highly sensitive and useful for the longitudinal, noninvasive monitoring of kidney dysfunction progression in preclinical research.

Dimerization of Organic Dyes on Luminescent Gold Nanoparticles for Ratiometric pH Sensing.

Synergistic effects arising from the conjugation of organic dyes onto non-luminescent metal nanoparticles (NPs) have greatly broadened their applications in both imaging and sensing. Herein, we report that conjugation of a well-known pH-insensitive dye, tetramethyl-rhodamine (TAMRA), to pH-insensitive luminescent gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) can lead to an ultrasmall nanoindicator that can fluorescently report local pH in a ratiometric way. Such synergy originated from the dimerization of TAMRA on AuNPs, of which geometry was very sensitive to surface charges of the AuNPs and can be reversely modulated through protonation of surrounding glutathione ligands. Not limited to pH-insensitive dyes, this pH-dependent dimerization can also enhance the pH sensitivity of fluorescein, a well-known pH-sensitive dye, within a larger pH range, opening up a new pathway to design ultrasmall fluorescent ratiometric nanoindicators with tunable wavelengths and pH response ranges.

High-contrast Noninvasive Imaging of Kidney Clearance Kinetics Enabled by Renal Clearable Nanofluorophores.

Noninvasive imaging of kidney clearance kinetics (KCK) of renal clearable probes is key to studying unilateral kidney function diseases, but such imaging is highly challenging to achieve with in vivo fluorescence. While this long-standing challenge is often attributed to the limited light penetration depth, we found that rapid and persistent accumulation of conventional dyes in the skin "shadowed" real fluorescence signals from the kidneys and prevented noninvasive imaging of KCK, which, however, can be addressed with renal clearable nanofluorophores. By integrating near infrared emission with efficient renal clearance and ultralow background interference, the nanofluorophores can increase kidney-contrast enhancement and imaging-time window by approximately 50- and 1000-fold over conventional dyes, and significantly minimize deviation between noninvasive and invasive KCK, laying down a foundation for translating in vivo fluorescence imaging in preclinical noninvasive kidney function assessments.

Passive tumor targeting of renal-clearable luminescent gold nanoparticles: long tumor retention and fast normal tissue clearance.

Glutathione-coated luminescent gold nanoparticles (GS-AuNPs) with diameters of ∼2.5 nm behave like small dye molecules (IRDye 800CW) in physiological stability and renal clearance but exhibit a much longer tumor retention time and faster normal tissue clearance, indicating that the well-known enhanced permeability and retention effect, a unique strength of conventional NPs in tumor targeting, still exists in such small NPs. These merits enable the AuNPs to detect tumor more rapidly than the dye molecules without severe accumulation in reticuloendothelial system organs, making them very promising for cancer diagnosis and therapy.