Orally administered gold nanoparticles protect against colitis by attenuating Toll-like receptor 4- and reactive oxygen/nitrogen species-mediated inflammatory responses but could induce gut dysbiosis in mice

Background Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are attracting interest as potential therapeutic agents to treat inflammatory diseases, but their anti-inflammatory mechanism of action is not clear yet. In addition, the effect of orally administered AuNPs on gut microbiota has been overlooked so far. Here, we evaluated the therapeutic and gut microbiota-modulating effects, as well as the anti-inflammatory paradigm, of AuNPs with three different coatings and five difference sizes in experimental mouse colitis and RAW264.7 macrophages.