Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have been widely investigated for a variety of biological applications, including drug delivery and targeting for cancer therapy. However, although AuNPs can be used to target the tumor via the EPR effect, AuNPs of this size range (50-200nm) also show high accumulation and persistence in the liver and spleen. On the other hand, NPs that can be renally cleared from the body (&lt;5nm) show poor tumor targeting. Thus, using these NPs for cancer therapy faces the challenge of needing opposing size ranges, which cannot be met using only one type of NP. <br/><br/>One strategy is to use AuNP aggregates that can be controllably disassembled into their renally-clearable components.We have previously reported a method for the controlled synthesis of AuNP aggregates using a crosslinker that can be easily and systematically modified. Here we investigate the relationship between chemical modifications of the crosslinker and the resulting changes in aggregate morphology and behavior under different biologically-relevant conditions. We demonstrate that our method is able to synthesize uniform, 100nm spherical AuNP aggregates using crosslinkers of varying valencies. We show that changing linker valency can modulate aggregate stability, which affects the cellular fate of the aggregates.<br/><br/>

Stability of gold nanoaggregates affects biological fate

251st National Meeting (2016)

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