Biosafety and Biocompatibility Assessment of Prussian Blue Nanoparticles In Vitro and In Vivo

Abstract

Aim: To investigate the effects of the different morphological characteristics of Prussian blue nanoparticles (PB NPs) on their biocompatibility and biosafety. Materials & methods: PB NPs with different sizes, shapes and charges were synthesized and their biosafety and biocompatibility performance were systematically compared in vitro and in vivo. Results: Increased size and positive charge of PB NPs adversely affected cell viability, while improving their peroxidase activity and photothermal conversion efficiency. In vivo analysis demonstrated good biocompatibility of PB NPs, without retention in the organs, but increased size retarded their metabolism. Meanwhile, increased size and positive charge adversely affected hepatic and renal function. Conclusion: This comprehensive exploration of biosafety and biocompatibility provides strong evidences for the use of PB NPs as nanodrug carrier and/or imaging agent.

Keywords::

• biocompatibility
• metabolism
• peroxidase activity
• photothermal conversion
• Prussian blue nanoparticles

Supplementary data

To view the supplementary data that accompany this paper please visit the journal website at: www.tandfonline.com/doi/suppl/10.2217/nnm-2020-0191

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This work was partially supported by the Opening Foundation of Key Laboratory of Study and Discovery of Small Targeted Molecules of Hunan Province (2019CG03), Hunan Department of Science and Technology (2019JJ50859). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Ethical conduct of research

The authors state that they have obtained appropriate institutional review board approval or have followed the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki for all human or animal experimental investigations. All animal experiments follow protocols approved by Xiangya Laboratory Animal Center.

Blinded for review

HeLa cells, HepG 2 cells, NIH-3T3 cells and MDA-MB-231 cells were obtained from the Xiangya Cell Central Laboratory, Central South University (Changsha, China).

Additional information

Funding

This work was partially supported by the Opening Foundation of Key Laboratory of Study and Discovery of Small Targeted Molecules of Hunan Province (2019CG03), Hunan Department of Science and Technology (2019JJ50859). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.