Laboratory of Environmental Toxicology, LABTOX, Department of Sanitary and Environment Engineering, Federal University of Santa Catarina, CEP 88040-970, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil; Department of Chemistry, University of Quebec in Montreal, C.P. 8888, Succ. Centre-Ville, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3C 3P8.
Environ Toxicol. 2014 Mar;29(3):328-36. doi: 10.1002/tox.21761. Epub 2012 Feb 13.
Polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimers are used for many pharmaceutical and biomedical applications. However, the toxicological risks of several PAMAM-based compounds are still not fully evaluated, despite evidences of PAMAM deleterious effects on biological membranes, leading to toxicity. In this report, we investigated the toxicity of generation 0 PAMAM-coated gold nanoparticles (AuG0 NPs) in four different models to determine how different cellular systems are affected by PAMAM-coated NPs. Toxicity was evaluated in two mammalian cell lines, Neuro 2A and Vero, in the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and the bacteria Vibrio fischeri. AuG0 NP treatments reduced cell metabolic activity in algal and bacterial cells, measured by esterase enzymatic activity (C. reinhardtii) and luminescence emission (V. fischeri). EC50 value after 30 min of treatment was similar in both organisms, with 0.114 and 0.167 mg mL(-1) for C. reinhardtii and V. fischeri, respectively. On the other hand, AuG0 NPs induced no change of mitochondrial activity in mammalian cells after 24 h of treatment to up to 0.4 mg mL(-1) AuG0 NPs. Change in the absorption spectra of AuG0 NP in the mammalian cell culture media may indicate an alteration of NP properties that contributed to the low toxicity of AuG0 NPs in mammalian cells. For a safe development of PAMAM-based nanomaterials, the difference of sensitivity between mammalian and microbial cells, as well as the modulation of NPs toxicity by medium properties, should be taken into account when designing PAMAM NPs for applications that may lead to their introduction in the environment.
聚酰胺-胺（PAMAM）树枝状聚合物被广泛应用于许多药物和生物医学领域。然而，尽管有证据表明 PAMAM 会对生物膜造成损害，从而导致毒性，但几种基于 PAMAM 的化合物的毒理学风险仍未得到充分评估。在本报告中，我们研究了第一代 PAMAM 包裹的金纳米粒子（AuG0 NPs）在四种不同模型中的毒性，以确定不同的细胞系统如何受到 PAMAM 包裹的 NPs 的影响。在两种哺乳动物细胞系（Neuro 2A 和 Vero）、绿藻莱茵衣藻和细菌发光杆菌中，通过酯酶酶活性（莱茵衣藻）和发光发射（发光杆菌）来评估毒性。藻类和细菌细胞中 AuG0 NP 处理后 30 分钟的细胞代谢活性降低，EC50 值在两种生物中相似，分别为 0.114 和 0.167 mg mL(-1)。另一方面，AuG0 NPs 在 24 小时的处理后，对哺乳动物细胞的线粒体活性没有变化，最高可达 0.4 mg mL(-1) 的 AuG0 NPs。在哺乳动物细胞培养介质中 AuG0 NP 吸收光谱的变化可能表明 NP 性质发生了变化，这导致了 AuG0 NPs 在哺乳动物细胞中的低毒性。为了安全地开发基于 PAMAM 的纳米材料，在设计用于可能导致其引入环境的应用的 PAMAM NPs 时，应考虑到哺乳动物和微生物细胞之间的敏感性差异，以及介质性质对 NPs 毒性的调节。
