Alterations in some genetic expression in relation to gold nanoparticles application

Abstract

Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are one of the most highly studied NPs as they serve as an ideal candidate in various biomedical applications due to their ease of tailoring into different size, shape, and decorations with different functionalities. The increased propensity for the exposure to AuNPs via IV injection in the clinical settings with their common entrapment in the lung, pose a high risk of possible lung toxicity. Thus, assessing potential adverse pulmonary effects of AuNPs is of great importance. The objectives of the present study were to investigate some of the molecular effects of AuNPs exposure on lung cells both in vivo and in vitro. The epigenetic effect of AuNPs on the expression of miR-155 together with the expression of two target genes; Protein S (PROS1) and Tumor protein 53 Inducible Nuclear Protein 1(TP53INP1) genes were studied. Moreover, AuNPs-genotoxic modifications of two DNA damage response (DDR) genes; Nibrin (NBN) and Breast Cancer Susceptibility 1 (BRCA1) genes were also investigated. For this purpose, forty adult male Albino Wister rats were used in the present study. Twenty rats received a single IV injection of citrate-capped AuNPs spheres (25±3 nm) at a final dose of 0.015 mg/Kg body weight while the other twenty rats were intravenously injected with single dose of normal saline and kept as control. Then, lung tissues were collected from both control and AuNPs-injected groups after one day, one week, one month and two months of AuNPs injection. Moreover, cultured human lung fibroblast (WI-38) cell line was treated with AuNPs at a final concentration of 2 nM and incubated