Efficient renal clearance is typically required of gold nanoparticles used for in vivo biomedical applications. However the adsorption of even a single protein molecule can increase the particle size past the �5.5 nm threshold required for clearance. Therefore, we have developed �5 nm gold nanospheres with a mixed-charge ligand surface which completely prevents protein adsorption in undiluted fetal bovine serum (FBS). The moderately-charged nanospheres are comprised of an uneven ratio of anionic citrate and one of two naturally-occurring amino acids, either cationic lysine or zwitterionic cysteine. Dynamic light scattering (DLS) analysis on the particles shows no size increase after nanosphere incubation in 100% FBS indicating negligible protein adsorption. These same nanospheres were also assembled into �20 nm, high near-infrared absorbing clusters via a biodegradable PLA-b-PEG-b-PLA polymer. After polymer degradation, the clusters dissociated back to original �5 nm primary constituent nanospheres, which also did not exhibit serum protein adsorption.

Charged gold nanoparticles with essentially zero serum protein adsorption in undiluted fetal bovine serum

245th National Meeting (2013)

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