Chitosan Tethered Colloidal Gold Nanospheres for Drug Delivery Applications

Gold Nanospheres (AuNS) have been widely explored as an emerging system for various biomedical applications including drug delivery, bioimaging and photomedicine. However, method of synthesizing nanoparticles and its toxicity including bioaccumulation has been a problem of concern. In the present study, we explored the appropriateness of 12.0±1.99 nm chitosan reduced AuNS in vivo models with respect to its bioavailability and toxicity against various concentrations (2.5–7.5 mg/kg). Administration of AuNS did not show any signs of morbidity. Inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) analysis of blood (0.156±0.154), urine (0.084±0.08) and tissues indicates gradual dissipation and obligatory clearance within 24 h time interval. Nevertheless, presence of AuNS in blood after 24 h confirms the bioavailability of AuNS demonstrating the evidence for no immune clearance and efficient tissue uptake. Further, brain shows the lowest quantity of injected AuNS. From this result, we determine this chitosan monolayer protected AuNS could cross the blood brain barrier and enter to the neural tissues. Interestingly there was no evidence of toxicity in any of the organs. In conclusion, our data suggest that AuNS injected though tail vain were easily taken up by tissues and does not produce sub-acute physiological damage even at high concentrations tested, supporting chitosan reduced AuNS as biocompatible, nontoxic nanoconjugates for targeted drug delivery and other biomedical applications.