Physicochemical changes in plasma membrane mirror nanoparticle-mediated cytotoxicity

The aim of this chapter was to understand the influence of nanoparticle challenge on physicochemical characteristics of the cells and to correlate these changes with cytotoxic response of nanoparticles. A nanoparticle surface charge and a concentration-dependent cytotoxic response were observed in the breast cancer cell lines MDA MB 231 and SKBR3. The cationic gold nanoparticles were more cytotoxic to cells as compared to anionic gold nanoparticles. It was also observed that cationic nanoparticles compromised the integrity of the plasma membrane at higher concentrations. Cationic nanoparticle challenge also caused changes in physicochemical characteristics of plasma membrane. Higher concentration of cationic nanoparticles caused an irreversible change in the surface charge density of cells. However, anionic gold nanoparticles did not show any such effect. It was observed that the ROS-mediated oxidative stress was the mechanism of cationic gold nanoparticle-mediated cytotoxic effect. Mitochondrial depolarization was observed in both anionic and cationic nanoparticle challenge. Therefore, the role of mitochondrial ROS in nanoparticle-mediated cytotoxicity is questionable. Finally, a generalized model involving modulation of intracellular Ca2+ can potentially provide an explanation for the observed pluralistic response of the cells towards nanoparticle challenge.