Spectroscopic and microscopic studies of vesicle rupture by AgNPs attack to screen the cytotoxicity of nanomaterials

It is well-known that silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) with 1–10 nm of diameter attached to the surface of cell membrane were able to penetrate into the cell followed by rupturing of the cell. However, most studies for cytotoxicity used living organisms and were time-consuming. Therefore, in this study, we proposed a model method for fingerprinting of nanotoxicity of AgNPs in mimetic cell membranes using phosphor lipid. The vesicle rupturing mechanism by AgNPs attack was investigated using surface plasmon resonance (SPR) spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM).