Abstract
Si/SiOx nanoparticles (NPs) produced by laser ablation in deionized water or aqueous biocompatible solutions present a novel extremely promising object for biomedical applications, but the interaction of these NPs with biological systems has not yet been systematically examined. Here, we present the first comprehensive study of biodistribution, biodegradability and toxicity of laser-synthesized Si-SiOx nanoparticles using a small animal model. Despite a relatively high dose of Si-NPs (20 mg/kg) administered intravenously in mice, all controlled parameters (serum, enzymatic, histological etc.) were found to be within safe limits 3 h, 24 h, 48 h and 7 days after the administration. We also determined that the nanoparticles are rapidly sequestered by the liver and spleen, then further biodegraded and directly eliminated in urine without any toxicity effects. Finally, we found that intracellular accumulation of Si-NPs does not induce any oxidative stress damage. Our results evidence a huge potential in using these safe and biodegradable NPs in biomedical applications, in particular as vectors, contrast agents and sensitizers in cancer therapy and diagnostics (theranostics).
Highlights
Characteristics for biomedical applications[1,2,3]
Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and dynamic light scattering (DLS) measurements showed that the formed nanoparticles were spherical with the mean size around 50 nm and the size dispersion lower than 40 nm full-width-at-half maximum (Fig. 1A,B)
The inhibition of cell survival below 25% and below 20% was observed for human microvascular endothelial cells (HMEC) and RAW264.7 cells, respectively, under relatively high concentrations of SiOx nanoparticles (Si-NPs) (50 μ g/mL and 100 μ g/mL, respectively), suggesting a satisfactorily low toxicity effect
Summary
Characteristics for biomedical applications[1,2,3]. Si-NPs are biocompatible, and biodegradable as in biological tissue they normally decay into orthosilicic acid Si(OH)[4] that is naturally excreted from the body with the urine[12]. Strategies based on mechanical milling of porous Si matrix typically lead to a wide dispersion of both size and shape of Si NPs, which complicates their transport and stability in vivo. It was shown that laser-synthesized Si-NPs can serve as efficient sensitizers for radio frequency induced cancer therapy[21] and photodynamic therapy[38]. Despite these first encouraging results, up to now there is no systematic toxicity data available for ultrapure Si-SiOx NPs prepared by laser ablation in aqueous biocompatible solutions. It is implied that this study will play a key role in the assessment of behavior of Si-NPs in biological systems and will validate their use as a theranostic tool in cancer therapy tasks
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