Peptide-Functionalized Gold Nanorods Increase Liver Injury in Hepatitis

Targeted nanomedicine holds enormous potential for advanced diagnostics and therapy. Although it is known that nanoparticles accumulate in liver in vivo, the impact of cell-targeting particles on the liver, especially in disease conditions, is largely obscure. We had previously demonstrated that peptide-conjugated nanoparticles differentially impact macrophage activation in vitro. We thus comprehensively studied the distribution of gold nanorods (AuNR) in mice in vivo and assessed their hepatotoxicity and impact on systemic and hepatic immune cells in healthy animals and experimental liver disease models. Gold nanorods were stabilized with either cetyltrimethylammonium bromide or poly(ethylene glycol) and additional bioactive tripeptides RGD or GLF. Gold nanorods mostly accumulated in liver upon systemic injection in mice, as evidenced by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry from different organs and by non-invasive microcomputerized tomography whole-body imaging. In liver, AuNR were only found in...