Novel route synthesis of porous and solid gold nanoparticles for investigating their comparative performance as contrast agent in computed tomography scan and effect on liver and kidney function

Farooq Aziz,1,2 Ayesha Ihsan,1 Aalia Nazir,2 Ishaq Ahmad,3 Sadia Zafar Bajwa,1 Asma Rehman,1 Abdoulaye Diallo,4 Waheed S Khan1 1Nanobiotechnology Group, National Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (NIBGE), Faisalabad, 2Department of Physics, Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur, 3National Center for Physics, Quaid-I-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan; 4Laboratory of Photonics and Nano-Fabrication, Faculty of Science and Technology, Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar (UCAD), Dakar-Fann Dakar, Senegal Abstract: Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) with dimension in the range of 1–100nm have a prominent role in a number of biomedical applications like imaging, drug delivery, and cancer therapy owing to their unique optical features and biocompatibility. In this work, we report a novel technique for the synthesis of two types of GNPs namely porous gold nanoparticles (PGNPs) and solid gold nanoparticles (SGNPs). PGNPs of size 35nm were fabricated by reduction of gold (III) solution with lecithin followed by addition of L-ascorbic acid and tri-sodium citrate, whereas SGNPs with a dimension of 28nm were prepared by reflux method using lecithin as a single reducing agent. Comparative studies using PGNPs (λmax 560 nm) and SGNPs (λmax 548 nm) were conducted for evaluating their use as a contrast agent. These studies reveled that in direct computed tomography scan, PGNPs exhibited brighter contrast (45 HU) than SGNPs (26 HU). To investigate the effect of PGNPs and SGNPs on the liver and kidney profile, male rabbits were intravenously injected with an equal dose of 1mg/kg weight of PGNPs and SGNPs. The effect on biochemical parameters was evaluated 72 hours after intravenous (IV) injection including liver function profile, renal (kidney) function biomarker, random blood glucose value, and cholesterol level. During one comparison of contrast in CT scan, PGNPs showed significantly enhanced contrast in whole-rabbit and organ CT scan as compared to SGNPs 6 hours after injection. Our findings suggested that the novel PGNPs enhance CT scan image with higher efficacy as compared to SGNPs. The results showed that IV administration of synthesized PGNPs increases the levels of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alkaline phosphate (ALP), serum creatinine, and blood glucose, whereas that of SGNPs increases the levels of AST, ALP, and blood glucose. Keywords: porous gold nanoparticles, solid gold nanoparticles, CT scan, contrast agent, liver function test, renal function test