Both short and long-term toxicity concerns remain with respect to the use of nanoparticles within the scientific community. Due to the similar toxicity homology, zebrafish provide an appropriate model system to study nanoparticle toxicity. Gold nanorods were coated with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, a polyelectrolyte or polyethylene glycol (PEG) and were introduced at different concentrations in a solution containing zebrafish embryos. The overall toxicity was evaluated based on embryo morbidity and observed abnormalities and deformities. Gold nanorods coated with the charged polyelectrolytes or CTAB alone showed significantly more toxicity than those coated with PEG. Additionally is has been demonstrated that we can selectively kill zebrafish which have been injected with gold nanorods while leaving those in the absence of the nanorods unharmed under near-infrared (NIR) irradiation. Current experiments include transplanting cells from one zebrafish that contains nanorods into a second zebrafish that does not in an effort to assess selective killing.  <br/>

Evaluation of coated gold nanorods on zebrafish embryos

255th National Meeting (2018)

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