Biodegradable Ultrasmall-in-Nano Gold Architectures: Mid-Period In Vivo Distribution and Excretion Assessment

The persistence of metals in the body after the designed theranostic action has hampered the clinical translation of noble metal nanoparticles (NPs) to clinics. Therefore, the appealing behaviors of NPs for healthcare applications are still on the bench-side. Here, quantitative evaluation in healthy murine models show that gold comprised in passion fruit-like nanoarchitectures (NAs) are excreted daily over a 10 d period by both renal and biliary pathways after biodegradation to the building blocks. Furthermore, histological analyses confirm the absence of nephrotoxicity and the remarkable biocompatibility of NAs up to the higher tested amount of 150 mg kg(-1). These in vivo findings demonstrate that NAs are the first full-inorganic disassembling nanoplatforms exhibiting a noticeable excretion rate from model organisms. Such results are a significant step in bringing noble metal nanotheranostics to the forefront of cancer treatments once again.