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Lopes J, Ferreira-Gonçalves T, Ascensão L, Viana AS, Carvalho L, Catarino J, Faísca P, Oliva A, de Barros DPC, Rodrigues CMP, Gaspar MM, Reis CP. Safety of Gold Nanoparticles: From In Vitro to In Vivo Testing Array Checklist. Pharmaceutics 2023; 15:pharmaceutics15041120. [PMID: 37111608 PMCID: PMC10141475 DOI: 10.3390/pharmaceutics15041120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/14/2023] [Revised: 03/20/2023] [Accepted: 03/28/2023] [Indexed: 04/05/2023] Open
Abstract
In recent years, gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have aroused the interest of many researchers due to their unique physicochemical and optical properties. AuNPs are being explored in a variety of biomedical fields, either in diagnostics or therapy, particularly for localized thermal ablation of cancer cells after light irradiation. Besides the promising therapeutic potential of AuNPs, their safety constitutes a highly important issue for any medicine or medical device. For this reason, in the present work, the production and characterization of physicochemical properties and morphology of AuNPs coated with two different materials (hyaluronic and oleic acids (HAOA) and bovine serum albumin (BSA)) were firstly performed. Based on the above importantly referred issue, the in vitro safety of developed AuNPs was evaluated in healthy keratinocytes, human melanoma, breast, pancreatic and glioblastoma cancer cells, as well as in a three-dimensional human skin model. Ex vivo and in vivo biosafety assays using, respectively, human red blood cells and Artemia salina were also carried out. HAOA-AuNPs were selected for in vivo acute toxicity and biodistribution studies in healthy Balb/c mice. Histopathological analysis showed no significant signs of toxicity for the tested formulations. Overall, several techniques were developed in order to characterize the AuNPs and evaluate their safety. All these results support their use for biomedical applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joana Lopes
- Research Institute for Medicines, iMed.ULisboa—Faculty of Pharmacy, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Professor Gama Pinto, 1649-003 Lisboa, Portugal
| | - Tânia Ferreira-Gonçalves
- Research Institute for Medicines, iMed.ULisboa—Faculty of Pharmacy, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Professor Gama Pinto, 1649-003 Lisboa, Portugal
- Instituto de Biofísica e Engenharia Biomédica (IBEB), Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal
| | - Lia Ascensão
- Centro de Estudos do Ambiente e do Mar (CESAM Lisboa), Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal
| | - Ana S. Viana
- Centro de Química Estrutural, Institute of Molecular Sciences, Departamento de Química e Bioquímica, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal
| | - Lina Carvalho
- Central Testing Laboratory, Campus Universitário de Santiago, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal
| | - José Catarino
- Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias, Campo Grande 376, 1749-024 Lisboa, Portugal
| | - Pedro Faísca
- Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias, Campo Grande 376, 1749-024 Lisboa, Portugal
- Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, R. Q.ta Grande 6 2780, 2780-156 Oeiras, Portugal
| | - Abel Oliva
- Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier (ITQB), Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Av. da República, 2780-157 Oeiras, Portugal
- iBET, Instituto de Biologia Experimental e Tecnológica, Av. da República, 2780-157 Oeiras, Portugal
| | - Dragana P. C. de Barros
- Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier (ITQB), Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Av. da República, 2780-157 Oeiras, Portugal
| | - Cecília M. P. Rodrigues
- Research Institute for Medicines, iMed.ULisboa—Faculty of Pharmacy, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Professor Gama Pinto, 1649-003 Lisboa, Portugal
| | - Maria Manuela Gaspar
- Research Institute for Medicines, iMed.ULisboa—Faculty of Pharmacy, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Professor Gama Pinto, 1649-003 Lisboa, Portugal
| | - Catarina Pinto Reis
- Research Institute for Medicines, iMed.ULisboa—Faculty of Pharmacy, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Professor Gama Pinto, 1649-003 Lisboa, Portugal
- Instituto de Biofísica e Engenharia Biomédica (IBEB), Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal
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Esgueira VLR, Lopes CPA, dos Santos ACA, Pinto F, Sousa SA, de Barros DPC, Leitão JH, Fonseca LP. LipNanoCar Technology – A Versatile and Scalable Technology for the Production of Lipid Nanoparticles. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology 2022; 1357:43-82. [DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-88071-2_3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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de Barros DPC, Fonseca LP, Cabral JMS, Weiss CK, Landfester K. Synthesis of alkyl esters by cutinase in miniemulsion and organic solvent media. Biotechnol J 2009; 4:674-83. [PMID: 19418474 DOI: 10.1002/biot.200800294] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
The main objective of this work was studying and testing the nature and influence of reaction media (organic solvent vs. miniemulsion system) on the synthesis of alkyl esters catalyzed by Fusarium solani pisi cutinase. Ester synthesis and cutinase selectivity for different chain length of acids and alcohols (ethyl and hexyl) were evaluated. In iso-octane, after 1 h of reaction, cutinase exhibits rates of esterification between 0.24 micromol x mg(-)1 x min(-1) for ethyl oleate and 1.15 micromol x mg(-)1 x min(-1) for ethyl butyrate, while in a miniemulsion system the rates were from 0.05 for ethyl heptanoate to 0.76 micromol x mg(-1) x min(-1) for ethyl decanoate. The reaction rate for the synthesis of hexyl esters in a miniemulsion system was from 0.19 for hexyl heptanoate to 1.07 micromol x mg(-)1 x min(-1) for hexyl decanoate. High conversion yields of 95% at equilibrium after 8 h of reaction in iso-octane for pentanoic acid (C(5)) with ethanol at equimolar concentration (0.1 M) was achieved. Additionally, this work showed that a significant and unexpected shift in cutinase selectivity occurred towards longer chain length carboxylic acids (C(8)-C(10)) in miniemulsion system as compared to organic solvent (iso-octane) and previous studies in reverse micellar systems. The possibility of working with higher concentration of substrates, without inhibitory effect on the enzyme, was another advantage of the miniemulsion system.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dragana P C de Barros
- Institute for Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Instituto Superior Técnico, Centre for Biological and Chemical Engineering, Lisbon, Portugal.
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