ACUTE 8 AND CHRONIC TOXICOLOGICAL STUDIES OF THE BIOSYNTHESIZED GOLD NANOPARTICLES ON WISTAR RATS

Abstract

In the present study, gold nanoparticles were biosynthesized using green extracts of medicinal plants. The synthesized nanoparticles were screened for in vitro anti HIV, anticancer and anti-tuberculosis activity. All the three studies demonstrated potential agonistic effects of the synthesized gold nanoparticles against HIV, cervical cancer and tuberculosis. Simultaneously, the in vitro cytotoxicity was checked in epithelial cell lineage such as Vero cell line. The results of in vitro cytotoxicity showed that the synthesized nanoparticles were non-toxic to the normal cells. The results of the in vivo toxicity will help in the effective formulation of the gold nanoparticles towards drug development for HIV, cervical cancer and tuberculosis. The results of acute toxicity and chronic toxicity implied that the animals did not suffer from any adverse effects following administration of gold nanoparticles. The animals survived both single dose and consecutive dosage for 28 days. The animals were observed to be normal without any abnormal behavioral changes. The blood parameters showed no significant difference between the control and treated animals on various parameters under consideration. Hematology reports suggested that the metabolic parameters of the treated group do not vary significantly with the control group. All the hematology reports implied that the biosynthesized gold nanocompounds did not elicit adverse effects on the animal model system. In the histopathology investigation, the major organs, such asthe brain, the heart, the kidney, the liver and the spleen were excised from the control and treated animals. The tissue samples were sectioned, stained with eosin red and viewed under microscope. The microscopic examination of all the tissues represented normal cellular organization without any distinctive tissue degeneration and organ damage. The present study has been successfully carried out to check the in vivo toxicological effects of the biosynthesized gold nanocompounds adapting Wistar rats as animal model system. The outcome of the study emphasized that the biosynthesized AuNPs were non-toxic to the treated animal model system. Further the study will focus on other toxicological implications such as immunotoxicity, neurotoxicity, reproductive toxicity and genotoxicity. The biosynthesized gold nanocompounds have a promising role as versatile nanomaterials towards multiple applications.