Synthesis of gold and silver nanoparticles stabilized with glycosaminoglycans having distinctive biological activities

Metal nanoparticles have been studied for their anticoagulant and anti-inflammatory efficacy in various models. Specifically, gold and silver nanoparticles exhibit properties that make these ideal candidates for biological applications. The typical synthesis of gold and silver nanoparticles incorporates contaminants that could pose further problems. Here we demonstrate a clean method of synthesizing gold and silver nanoparticles that exhibit biological functions. These nanoparticles were prepared by reducing AuCl4 and AgNO3 using heparin and hyaluronan as both reducing and stabilizing agents. The particles show stability under physiological conditions and narrow size distributions for heparin particles and wider distribution for hyaluronan particles. Studies show that the heparin nanoparticles exhibit anticoagulant properties. Additionally, either gold- or silver-heparin nanoparticles exhibit local anti-inflammatory properties without any significant effect on systemic hemostasis upon administration in carrageenan-induced paw edema models. In conclusion, gold and silver nanoparticles complexed with heparin demonstrated effective anticoagulant and anti-inflammatory efficacy, having potential in various local applications.