Abstract
Mesoporous silica nanoparticles are known to induce the hemolysis of human red blood cells (RBCs) when citotoxicity assays are performed in a phosphate buffer solution (PBS). However, in a more realistic approach, the presence of blood plasma biomolecules must be considered in any nanotoxicological evaluation of porous SiO2 nanoparticles when biomedical applications through intravenous administration are aimed. In this context, it is demonstrated in this work that porous silica nanoparticles do not induce any cytotoxic effect on RBCs when hemolysis assay is done in the presence of blood plasma, regardless the surface charge (positive or negative) of the nanoparticle. The absence of hemolysis is mainly associated with the adsorption of plasma proteins on the nanoparticle surface, which leads to the formation of a stable protein coating (called protein corona or PC) that shields the original microchemical environment of bare nanoparticles.
Highlights
Since porous silica nanoparticles were elected as possible protagonists in a future revolution of several medical processes of theranosis, they have been widely studied during the last decade through the host-guest approach, resulting in promising perspectives mainly in the areas of detection[1,2,3] and treatment of tumors.[4,5,6,7] While part of the scientific community creatively advances towards the engineering of porous silica nanostructures, others are acting in a proactive approach by considering environmental and toxicological effects of nano-based silica materials
It is demonstrated that porous SiO2 nanoparticles in the sub-hundred nanometer range with three different surface microchemical environments do not induce toxicity on red blood cells (RBCs) when evaluated in the presence of human blood plasma, thereby contrasting with the pronounced hemolytic effect observed when the assay is done in phosphate buffer solution (PBS)
The spherical morphology of the synthesized silica nanoparticles is highly uniform for the three samples produced, presenting diameters which vary from approximately 40 ‐80 nm, as observed through bright‐field transmission electron microscopy (BF‐TEM, see Figure 1) and through the nanoparticle size distribution resulted from the measurement of the Feret diameter of at least 100 particles observed in the images
Summary
Since porous silica nanoparticles were elected as possible protagonists in a future revolution of several medical processes of theranosis, they have been widely studied during the last decade through the host-guest approach, resulting in promising perspectives mainly in the areas of detection[1,2,3] and treatment of tumors.[4,5,6,7] While part of the scientific community creatively advances towards the engineering of porous silica nanostructures, others are acting in a proactive approach by considering environmental and toxicological effects of nano-based silica materials. These coatings greatly influence on the way that the nanometer entity is “seen” by cell and organs.[21,22] In this case, the dependence of size, porous structure and surface chemistry of SiO2 nanoparticles on the hemolysis of RBCs may manifest differently when such nanostructures interact with proteins of the human blood plasma and, the final effect on RBCs is a result of the PC formation and of the bare silica surface itself.
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