Comprehensive Assessment of In Vivo Toxicity and Safety Profile of PEGylated Copper Sulfide Nanoparticles in a Rat Model (Sprague Dawley)

Recently, copper sulfide nanoparticles (CuS-NPs) have acquired much attention because they are cheaper and easily available and have numerous applications in medicine like drug delivery, DNA and glucose detection, immunosensor, tumor therapy, photothermal ablation, and photoacoustic imaging. Despite the numerous advantages and potential applications of CuS-NPs, there are also concerns regarding the toxicity of the NPs. Herein, we have explored the potential in-vivo toxicity of PEGylated CuS-NPs in a rat model (Sprague Dawley). The PEGylation was achieved using a simple chemical precipitation approach followed by extensive characterization analysis using techniques like XRD, FTIR, XRD, SEM, and EDX. The NPs were then evaluated for safety profiling at low (1.73 mg/200 g) and high doses (3.46 mg/200 g) in a rat model, and biochemical, hematological, and histopathological parameters were examined. Our results show significant dose-dependent differences in biochemical and hematological parameters like WBC count, RBC count, platelets level, ESR level, ALT level, ALP level, creatinine level, and uric acid levels as compared with the control groups. Furthermore, histopathological investigation reveals liver parenchyma with fatty alterations and ballooning degradation in the low-dosage group, but liver parenchyma with widespread necrosis and cholestasis was observed in the high-dose group. We thus conclude that CuS-NPs even capped with compatible polymers like PEG can result in potential toxicity at high doses.