The main goal of this undergraduate research project was to develop analytical, chemistry-based methodologies for studying (a) the interaction of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), a well-known antibacterial agent, with human red blood cells (RBCs), and (b) their potential cytotoxicity mechanism. To achieve this, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) and graphite furnace atomic absorption spectroscopy (GFAAS) in conjunction with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) quality control guidelines were employed for (a) the quantification of the total amount of Ag interacting with RBCs (5 % hematocrit, -12.5 mV) and (b) the toxic effects on the Na+/K+ ATPase after RBCs exposure to 150 µg.mL-1 of AgNPs (5 % glucose) for 60 min. Negatively charged, citrate-capped AgNPs (-15 mV) of an average diameter of ~10 nm served as a nano-model due to their smaller size, wide use, and biocompatibility (trisodium citrate is heavily used as a food preservative and excipient pharmaceutical agent). It was found that approximately half of the administered AgNPs (~48 ± 5 %) interacted with RBCs, inhibited Rb+ influx (~50 %) and reduced the cellular K+ ion concentration (~15 %) of RBCs. Rb+ was utilized as a congener for Na+. These results are indicative of membrane damage and activation of a potentially highly active ion channel in the RBC membrane due to AgNPs exposure. Thus, citrate capped AgNPs may remain concentrated in the blood circulatory system and cause RBC toxicity despite their negative charge and biocompatible capping agent.

Developing GFAAS- and ICP-OES-based methodologies for studying the toxicity and interactions of silver nanoparticles with human red blood cells

ACS Fall 2021

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