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Silver nanoparticles in complex biological media: assessment of colloidal stability and protein corona formation

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Abstract

Engineered silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are among the most used nanomaterials in consumer products, therefore concerns are raised about their potential for adverse effects in humans and environment. Although an increasing number of studies in vitro and in vivo are being reported on the toxicity of AgNPs, most of them suffer from incomplete characterization of AgNPs in the tested biological media. As a consequence, the comparison of toxicological data is troublesome and the toxicity evaluation still remains an open critical issue. The development of a reliable protocol to evaluate interactions of AgNPs with surrounding proteins as well as to assess their colloidal stability is therefore required. In this regard, it is of importance not only to use multiple, easy-to-access and simple techniques but also to understand limitations of each characterization methods. In this work, the morphological and structural behaviour of AgNPs has been studied in two relevant biological media, namely 10 % FBS and MP. Three different techniques (Dynamic Light Scattering, Transmission Electron Microscopy, UV–Vis spectroscopy) were tested for their suitability in detecting AgNPs of three different sizes (10, 40 and 100 nm) coated with either citrate or polyvinylpyrrolidone. Results showed that UV–Vis spectroscopy is the most versatile and informative technique to gain information about interaction between AgNPs and surrounding proteins and to determine their colloidal stability in the tested biological media. These findings are expected to provide useful insights in characterizing AgNPs before performing any further in vitro/in vivo experiment.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Mouse and Animal Pathology Lab (Filarete Foundation) for providing us the MP used in this study. Davide Marchesi is kindly acknowledged for TEM measurements.

Funding Information

This work was supported by Fondazione CARIPLO for the project “Toxicology of chronic exposure to engineered silver nanoparticles”, under the Program “Nanoparticles, nanotechnologies and ultrafine particles”. P. Milani, S. Argentiere acknowledge financial support from European project FutureNanoNeeds, “Framework to respond to regulatory needs of future nanomaterials and markets” g.a. 604602.

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Fondazione Filarete, Viale Ortles 22/4, 20139, Milan, Italy

      Simona Argentiere & Claudia Cella

    2. CIMAINA and Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria 16, 20133, Milan, Italy

      Claudia Cella, Paolo Milani & Cristina Lenardi

    3. European School of Molecular Medicine (SEMM), Campus IFOM-IEO, Via Adamello 16, 20139, Milan, Italy

      Claudia Cella

    4. Dipartimento di Matematica e Fisica “Ennio De Giorgi”, Università del Salento, Via per Arnesano, 73100, Lecce, Italy

      Maura Cesaria

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    1. Simona Argentiere
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    2. Claudia Cella
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    3. Maura Cesaria
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    Correspondence to Simona Argentiere.

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    Dr. Simona Argentiere and Claudia Cella contributed equally.

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    Argentiere, S., Cella, C., Cesaria, M. et al. Silver nanoparticles in complex biological media: assessment of colloidal stability and protein corona formation. J Nanopart Res 18, 253 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-016-3560-5

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