Investigating the Role of Gold Nanoparticle Shape and Size in Their Toxicities to Fungi.

Kangze Liu,Furong Tian,Zhonglei He,Hugh Byrne,James Curtin

doi:10.3390/ijerph15050998

Kangze Liu, Furong Tian + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15050998

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Abstract

Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) are increasingly being used in a wide range of applications, and such they are being released in greater quantities into the environment. Consequently, the environmental effects of GNPs, especially toxicities to living organisms, have drawn great attention. However, their toxicological characteristics still remain unclear. Fungi, as the decomposers of the ecosystem, interact directly with the environment and critically control the overall health of the biosphere. Thus, their sensitivity to GNP toxicity is particularly important. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of GNP shape and size in their toxicities to fungi, which could help reveal the ecotoxicity of GNPs. Aspergillus niger, Mucor hiemalis, and Penicillium chrysogenum were chosen for toxicity assessment, and spherical and star/flower-shaped GNPs ranging in size from 0.7 nm to large aggregates of 400 nm were synthesised. After exposure to GNPs and their corresponding reaction agents and incubation for 48 h, the survival rates of each kind of fungus were calculated and compared. The results indicated that fungal species was the major determinant of the variation of survival rates, whereby A. niger was the most sensitive and M. himalis was the least sensitive to GNP exposure. Additionally, larger and non-spherical GNPs had relatively stronger toxicities.

Highlights

In the growing field of nanotechnology, gold nanoparticles (GNPs) have received a lot of attention, with respect to their potential applications in bio-related areas [1,2,3,4,5]
For GNPs synthesised by adding monosodium phosphates, as the concentration of monosodium phosphate increases, the absolute value of zeta potential increases
For GNPs synthesised by adding disodium phosphates, the absolute value of zeta potential decreases as the concentration of disodium phosphate increases

Summary

Introduction

In the growing field of nanotechnology, gold nanoparticles (GNPs) have received a lot of attention, with respect to their potential applications in bio-related areas [1,2,3,4,5]. One of the most important characteristics of GNPs is the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR). The LSPR phenomena of GNPs are manifest when the dimensions of the GNP are smaller than the extent of the plasmon wavefunction delocalization, resulting in strong resonances of the surface electronic states with radiation in the visible region of the spectrum [6,7]. LSPR phenomena, with a stronger absorption, GNPs are more commonly used in biologically-related applications because of their reputed biocompatibility [6,7,8]. It is worth mentioning that the potential of GNPs in medical and clinical use has been long investigated [9]

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