2019, Bailly, A. -L., Correard, F., Tselikov, G., Chaspoul, F., Popov, A., Kabashin, A. V., Попов, Антон Александрович, Кабашин, Андрей Викторович

Capable of generating plasmonic and other effects, gold nanostructures can offer a variety of diagnostic and therapy functionalities for biomedical applications, but conventional chemically-synthesized Au nanomaterials cannot always match stringent requirements for toxicity levels and surface conditioning. Laser-synthesized Au nanoparticles (AuNP) present a viable alternative to chemical counterparts and can offer exceptional purity (no trace of contaminants) and unusual surface chemistry making possible direct conjugation with biocompatible polymers (dextran, polyethylene glycol). This work presents the first pharmacokinetics, biodistribution and safety study of laser-ablated dextran-coated AuNP (AuNPd) under intravenous administration in small animal model. Our data show that AuNPd are rapidly eliminated from the blood circulation and accumulated preferentially in liver and spleen, without inducing liver or kidney toxicity, as confirmed by the plasmatic ALAT and ASAT activities, and creatininemia values. Despite certain residual accumulation in tissues, we did not detect any sign of histological damage or inflammation in tissues, while IL-6 level confirmed the absence of any chronic inflammation. The safety of AuNPd was confirmed by healthy behavior of animals and the absence of acute and chronic toxicities in liver, spleen and kidneys. Our results demonstrate that laser-synthesized AuNP are safe for biological systems, which promises their successful biomedical applications.

2019, Tselikov, G., Al-Kattan, A., Popov, A. A., Kabashin, A. V., Попов, Антон Александрович, Кабашин, Андрей Викторович

Copyright © 2019 SPIE.Methods of femtosecond laser ablation and fragmentation in liquids were used to fabricate bare (ligand-free) plasmonic Au and TiN nanoparticles. By varying laser parameters (laser energy, focusing conditions) and environment (deionized water, acetone), we were able to synthesize spherical Au and TiN nanoparticles of variable size between a few of nm and 30-40 nm under a relatively low size dispersion. EDX and XPS tests confirm that both nanoparticle samples consist of gold and titanium nitride in the absence of any impurity. While Au based nanoparticles demonstrate a standard plasmonic extinction peak in the visible green range (520-540 nm), TiN counterparts exhibit a broad red-shifted peak centered around 650-700 nm even for very small nanoparticle sizes (4-5 nm). We finally discuss possible applications of laser-synthesized Au nanoparticles in SERS, SEIRA and electrocatalysis, while TiN nanoparticles are considered as promising sensitizers of photothermal therapies.