Abstract
Advancements in the field of nanotechnology have resulted in the emergence of a large variety of engineered nanomaterials for innumerable applications. Despite the ubiquitous use of nanomaterials in daily life, concerns regarding the potential toxicity and safety of these materials have also been raised. There is a high demand for assessing the unwanted effects of both gold and silver nanoparticles, which is increasingly being used in biomedical applications. This paper deals with the study of stress due to silver and gold nanoparticles of varying size on red blood cells (RBCs) using Raman tweezers spectroscopy. RBCs were incubated with nanoparticles of size in the 10–100 nm range with the same concentrations, and micro-Raman spectra were recorded by optically trapping the nanoparticle-treated live RBCs. Spectral modifications implicating hemoglobin deoxygenation were observed in all nanoparticle-treated RBCs. One of the probable reason for the deoxygenation trend can be the adhesion of nanoparticles onto the cell surface causing imbalance in cell functioning. Moreover, the higher spectral variations observed for silver nanoparticles indicate that oxidative stress is involved in cell damage. These mechanisms lead to the modification in the hemoglobin structure because of changes in the pH of cytoplasm, which can be detected using Raman spectroscopy.
Highlights
Nanoscience and technology has become one of the leading disciplines because of unique chemical and physical properties of nanomaterials
The current study investigates the in vitro interaction of both silver and gold nanoparticles of different sizes with human live red blood cells (RBCs)
RBC−nanoparticle interaction has altogether adversely influenced the oxygen binding ability of hemoglobin, which is evident from the enhancement in deoxygenated hemoglobin markers accompanied with a reduction in the oxyhemoglobin markers
Summary
Nanoscience and technology has become one of the leading disciplines because of unique chemical and physical properties of nanomaterials. For the nanoparticles to enter the cell, it has to make its way across the cell membrane. One of the key factors while considering nanoparticle toxicity is their interaction with the cell membrane[18]. Interaction of metal nanoparticles can occur through different mechanisms; it can enter cells either by active or passive uptake depending on the cell type.[19] Phagocyte cells such as neutrophils, macrophages, and monocytes engulf the particles.[20] Passive transport is adopted by the cells lacking endocytosis machinery such as red blood cells (RBCs).[21]
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