l-Leucine for gold nanoparticles synthesis and their cytotoxic effects evaluation

• Published in: Amino acids Vol. 46; no. 11; pp. 2545 - 2552
• Main Authors: Berghian-Grosan, Camelia, Olenic, Liliana, Katona, Gabriel, Perde-Schrepler, Maria, Vulcu, Adriana
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Vienna Springer Vienna 01.11.2014; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Amino acids; Analytical Chemistry; Anisotropy; Biochemical Engineering; Biochemistry; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Capping; Cell Line, Tumor; Cell Survival; Citrates; Drug Design; Gold; Gold - chemistry; Humans; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; Leucine; Leucine - chemistry; Life Sciences; Metal Nanoparticles - chemistry; Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; Nanoparticles; Nanotechnology - methods; Neurobiology; Original Article; Particle Size; Precursors; Proteomics; Spectrophotometry; Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet; Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared; Synthesis; Leucine capped gold nanoparticles; Cytotoxic effect; Leucine reduction method; HaCaT cells; A431 cells; Citrate reduction method
• ISSN: 0939-4451; 1438-2199
• DOI: 10.1007/s00726-014-1814-z

This work reports the preparation of water-soluble leucine capped gold nanoparticles by two single-step synthesis methods. The first procedure involves a citrate reduction approach where the citrate is used as reducing agent and leucine as capping/stabilizing agent. Different sizes of gold nanoparticles, citrate reduced and stabilized by leucine, Leu-AuNPs-C, with the mean diameters in the range of 21–56 nm, were obtained by varying the macroscopic parameters such as: concentration of the gold precursor solution, Au (III):citrate molar ratio and leucine pH. In the second procedure, leucine acts both as reducing and stabilizing agent, allowing us to obtain spherical gold nanoparticles, Leu-AuNPs, with a majority of 80 % (with the mean diameter of 63 nm). This proves that leucine is an appropriate reductant for the formation of water-soluble and stable gold nanoparticles colloids. The characterization of the leucine coated gold nanoparticles was carried out by TEM, UV–Vis and FT-IR analysis. The cytotoxic effect of Leu-AuNPs-C and Leu-AuNPs was also evaluated.