Studies on the safety of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) are plentiful due to their successful application in drug delivery and treatment of diseases in trials. Cytotoxicity caused by GNPs has been studied on the physiological and biochemical level; yet, the effect of GNPs (particularly gold nano-spheres) on the metabolome of living organisms remains understudied. In this investigation, metabolomics was used to comprehensively study the metabolic alterations in HepG2 cells caused by GNPs; and to investigate the role of representative GNP coatings. GNPs were synthesized, coated and characterized before use on HepG2 cell cultures. Cells were treated for 3 h with citrate-, poly-(sodiumsterene sulfunate)-, and poly-vinylpyrrolidone (PVP)-capped GNPs, respectively. The internalization of the different GNPs and their effect on mitochondrial respiration and the metabolome were studied. Results indicated that the PVP-capped GNPs internalized more and also caused a more observable effect on the metabolome. Conversely, it was the citrate- and poly-(sodiumsterene sulfunate) coated particles that influenced ATP production in addition to the metabolomic changes. A holistic depletion of intracellular metabolites was observed regardless of GNP coating, which hints to the binding of certain metabolites to the particles.

中文翻译：

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代谢组学揭示了金纳米颗粒处理后HepG2细胞内细胞内代谢物的消耗

由于金纳米颗粒（GNP）在药物递送和疾病治疗中的成功应用，因此对其安全性的研究很多。已经在生理和生化水平上研究了由GNP引起的细胞毒性。然而，仍未研究GNP（特别是金纳米球）对生物体代谢组的影响。在这项研究中，代谢组学被用来全面研究由GNPs引起的HepG2细胞的代谢变化。并研究代表性GNP涂料的作用。在用于HepG2细胞培养之前，先对GNP进行合成，包被和表征。将细胞分别用柠檬酸盐-，聚-（苯乙烯磺酸钠）-和聚乙烯吡咯烷酮（PVP）封端的GNPs处理3小时。研究了不同GNP的内在化及其对线粒体呼吸和代谢组的影响。结果表明，PVP封端的GNP内在化的程度更高，并且对代谢组的作用也更明显。相反，除了代谢组学变化外，柠檬酸盐和聚（苯乙烯磺酸钠）包被的颗粒还影响ATP的产生。无论GNP涂层如何，都观察到细胞内代谢物的整体耗竭，这暗示某些代谢物与颗粒的结合。