Abstract
Recent studies have shown that gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) in the ultrasmall size regime (< 3 nm in diameter) can present distinct advantages for applications in nanomedicine, such as an efficient renal clearance in vivo. Herein we perform a systematic investigation of the effects of size and surface chemistry on the in vitro biointeractions of ultrasmall AuNPs. Nanoparticle surface chemistry was modulated using small peptides as passivating ligands; size and uniformity were carefully characterized with dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) and analytical ultracentrifugation; and nanoparticle aggregation and serum protein adsorption were evaluated both experimentally by analytical ultracentrifugation as well as computationally by molecular dynamics simulations. First, our results showed that the colloidal stability of ultrasmall AuNPs in biological media can depend on seemingly small variations in core diameter. Our investigations also established how the surface chemistry could be tuned to produce ultrasmall AuNPs highly resistant to aggregation and adsorption from serum proteins.
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