The adjuvanticity of gold nanoparticles

A new variant of a technique for in vivo production of antibodies to various antigens with colloidal-gold nanoparticles as carrier is discussed. With this technique we obtained highly specific and relatively high-titre antibodies to different antigens. The antibodies were tested by an immunodot assay with gold nanoparticle markers. Our results provide the first demonstration that immunization of animals with colloidal gold complexed with either haptens or complete antigens gives rise to highly specific antibodies even without the use of complete Freund's adjuvant. These findings may attest to the adjuvanticity of gold nanoparticles itself. We provide also experimental results and discussion aimed at elucidation of possible mechanisms of the discovered colloidal-gold-adjuvanticity effect.