Evaluating the potential of gold, silver, and silica nanoparticles to saturate mononuclear phagocytic system tissues under repeat dosing conditions

BACKGROUND: As nanoparticles (NPs) become more prevalent in the pharmaceutical industry, questions have arisen from both industry and regulatory stakeholders about the long term effects of these materials. This study was designed to evaluate whether gold (10 nm), silver (50 nm), or silica (10 nm) nanoparticles administered intravenously to mice for up to 8 weeks at doses known to be sub-toxic (non-toxic at single acute or repeat dosing levels) and clinically relevant could produce significant bioaccumulation in liver and spleen macrophages. RESULTS: Repeated dosing with gold, silver, and silica nanoparticles did not saturate bioaccumulation in liver or spleen macrophages. While no toxicity was observed with gold and silver nanoparticles throughout the 8 week experiment, some effects including histopathological and serum chemistry changes were observed with silica nanoparticles starting at week 3. No major changes in the splenocyte population were observed during the study for any of the nanoparticles tested. CONCLUSIONS: The clinical impact of these changes is unclear but suggests that the mononuclear phagocytic system is able to handle repeated doses of nanoparticles. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12989-017-0206-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.