Size-dependent in vivo toxicity of PEG-coated gold nanoparticles.

BACKGROUND: Gold nanoparticle toxicity research is currently leading towards the in vivo experiment. Most toxicology data show that the surface chemistry and physical dimensions of gold nanoparticles play an important role in toxicity. Here, we present the in vivo toxicity of 5, 10, 30, and 60 nm PEG-coated gold nanoparticles in mice. METHODS: Animal survival, weight, hematology, morphology, organ index, and biochemistry were characterized at a concentration of 4000 µg/kg over 28 days. RESULTS: The PEG-coated gold particles did not cause an obvious decrease in body weight or appreciable toxicity even after their breakdown in vivo. Biodistribution results show that 5 nm and 10 nm particles accumulated in the liver and that 30 nm particles accumulated in the spleen, while the 60 nm particles did not accumulate to an appreciable extent in either organ. Transmission electron microscopic observations showed that the 5, 10, 30, and 60 nm particles located in the blood and bone marrow cells, and that the 5 and 60 nm particles aggregated preferentially in the blood cells. The increase in spleen index and thymus index shows that the immune system can be affected by these small nanoparticles. The 10 nm gold particles induced an increase in white blood cells, while the 5 nm and 30 nm particles induced a decrease in white blood cells and red blood cells. The biochemistry results show that the 10 nm and 60 nm PEG-coated gold nanoparticles caused a significant increase in alanine transaminase and aspartate transaminase levels, indicating slight damage to the liver. CONCLUSION: The toxicity of PEG-coated gold particles is complex, and it cannot be concluded that the smaller particles have greater toxicity. The toxicity of the 10 nm and 60 nm particles was obviously higher than that of the 5 nm and 30 nm particles. The metabolism of these particles and protection of the liver will be more important issues for medical applications of gold-based nanomaterials in future.

First-principles investigation of Ag-doped gold nanoclusters.

Gold nanoclusters have the tunable optical absorption property, and are promising for cancer cell imaging, photothermal therapy and radiotherapy. First-principle is a very powerful tool for design of novel materials. In the present work, structural properties, band gap engineering and tunable optical properties of Ag-doped gold clusters have been calculated using density functional theory. The electronic structure of a stable Au(20) cluster can be modulated by incorporating Ag, and the HOMO-LUMO gap of Au(20-) (n)Ag(n) clusters is modulated due to the incorporation of Ag electronic states in the HOMO and LUMO. Furthermore, the results of the imaginary part of the dielectric function indicate that the optical transition of gold clusters is concentration-dependent and the optical transition between HOMO and LUMO shifts to the low energy range as the Ag atom increases. These calculated results are helpful for the design of gold cluster-based biomaterials, and will be of interest in the fields of radiation medicine, biophysics and nanoscience.

Toxicologic effects of gold nanoparticles in vivo by different administration routes.

Gold nanoparticles have potential applications in biomedicine, but one of the important concerns is about their safety. Most toxicology data are derived from in vitro studies and may not reflect in vivo responses. Here, an animal toxicity study of 13.5 nm gold nanoparticles in mice is presented. Animal survival, weight, hematology, morphology, and organ index are characterized at different concentrations (137.5-2200 µg/kg) over 14-28 days. The results show that low concentrations of gold nanoparticles do not cause an obvious decrease in body weight or appreciable toxicity, even after their breakdown in vivo. High concentrations of gold nanoparticles induced decreases in body weight, red blood cells, and hematocrit. It was also found that gold nanoparticles administered orally caused significant decreases in body weight, spleen index, and red blood cells. Of the three administration routes, the oral and intraperitoneal routes showed the highest toxicity, and the tail vein injection showed the lowest toxicity. Combining the results of all of these studies, we suggest that targeted gold nanopartices by tail vein injection may be suitable for enhancement of radiotherapy, photothermal therapy, and related medical diagnostic procedures.

Research on EPR measurement methods of sucrose used in radiation accident dose reconstruction.

Sucrose is a convenient, common, tissue-equivalent material suitable for electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) dosimetry of ionising radiation. A number of publications have reported on the dosimetric properties of sucrose and their use in radiation accident dose reconstruction. However, previous studies did not include specially the description of measurement methods of sucrose by EPR. The aim of this work is to introduce particularly the EPR measurement methods of sucrose. In this regard, practical considerations of sample size, microwave power, modulation amplitude, EPR spectrum and signal stability are discussed.

Irradiation stability and cytotoxicity of gold nanoparticles for radiotherapy.

Gold nanoparticles are promising as a kind of novel radiosensitizer in radiotherapy. If gold nanoparticles are shown to have good irradiation stability and biocompatibility, they would play an important role in radiotherapy. In this work, we investigated irradiation effects of gold nanoparticles under 2-10 kR gamma irradiation and cytotoxicity of gold nanoparticles with human K562 cells by using Cell Titre-Glo luminescent cell viability assay. The results revealed that gamma irradiation had not induced any obvious instability and size variations in gold nanoparticles. We found that gold nanoparticles showed excellent radiation hardness with an absorbed dose conversation factor of 9.491 rad/R. Meanwhile, the surface plasmon resonance of gold nanoparticles was enhanced obviously after 2-10 kR gamma irradiation. Subsequently, cytotoxicity tests indicated that the extremely high concentration of gold nanoparticles could cause a sharp decrease in K562 cell viability, while the low concentration of gold nanoparticles had no obvious influence on the cell viability. Our results revealed that gold nanoparticles were stable under high-energy ray irradiation and showed concentration-dependent cytotoxicity.

Dose level of occupational exposure in China.

This paper discusses the dose level of Chinese occupational exposures during 1986-2000. Data on occupational exposures from the main categories in nuclear fuel cycle (uranium enrichment and conversion, fuel fabrication, reactor operation, waste management and research activity, except for uranium mining and milling because of the lack of data), medical uses of radiation (diagnostic radiation, nuclear medicine and radiotherapy) and industrial uses of radiation (industrial radiography and radioisotope production) are presented and summarised in detail. These are the main components of occupational exposures in China. In general, the average annual effective doses show a steady decreasing trend over periods: from 2.16 to 1.16 mSv in medical uses of radiation during 1990-2000; from 1.92 to 1.18 mSv in industrial radiography during 1990-2000; from 8.79 to 2.05 mSv in radioisotope production during the period 1980-2000. Almost all the average annual effective doses in discussed occupations were lower than 5 mSv in recent years (except for well-logging: 6.86 mSv in 1999) and no monitored workers were found to have received the occupational exposure exceeding 50 mSv in a single year or 100 mSv in a five-year period. So the Chinese protection status of occupation exposure has been improved in recent years. However, the average annual effective doses in some occupations, such as diagnostic radiology and coal mining, were still much higher than that of the whole world. There are still needs for further improvement and careful monitoring of occupational exposure to protect every worker from excessive occupational exposure, especially for the workers who were neglected before.

[Effect on dose owing to source displacement in coronary endovascular brachytherapy].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect on the dose distribution of source position displacement with the target region margin in catheter-based 192Ir line source endovascular brachytherapy. METHOD: Dose rate distribution along longitudinal axes was estimated by the formula recommended by AAPM No.60 and No. 43. RESULTS: In the two cases of source displacement (1.1 and 5 mm) doses of target region margin was decreased dramatically (at most 53.9% and 565.8% respectively) were compared to that of no source displacement, and the affected range was 6 mm and 9 mm respectively. CONCLUSION: Source displacement will lead to the decrease of dose in target region margin.