Toxicity of nanoparticles_ challenges and opportunities

Harnessing the potential of nanoengineered siRNAs carriers for target responsive glioma therapy: Recent progress and future opportunities

Past scientific testimonials in the field of glioma research, the deadliest tumor among all brain cancer types with the life span of 10-15 months after diagnosis is considered as glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). Even though the availability of treatment options such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery, are unable to completely cure GBM due to tumor microenvironment complexity, intrinsic cellular signalling, and genetic mutations which are involved in chemoresistance. The blood-brain barrier is accountable for restricting drugs entry at the tumor location and related biological challenges like endocytic degradation, short systemic circulation, and insufficient cellular penetration lead to tumor aggression and progression. The above stated challenges can be better mitigated by small interfering RNAs (siRNA) by knockdown genes responsible for tumor progression and resistance. However, siRNA encounters with challenges like inefficient cellular transfection, short circulation time, endogenous degradation, and off-target effects. The novel functionalized nanocarrier approach in conjunction with biological and chemical modification offers an intriguing potential to address challenges associated with the naked siRNA and efficiently silence STAT3, coffilin-1, EGFR, VEGF, SMO, MGMT, HAO-1, GPX-4, TfR, LDLR and galectin-1 genes in GBM tumor. This review highlights the nanoengineered siRNA carriers, their recent advancements, future perspectives, and strategies to overcome the systemic siRNA delivery challenges for glioma treatment.

Root-Applied Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles and Their Specific Effects on Plants: A Review

With the pronounced increase in nanotechnology, it is likely that biological systems will be exposed to excess nanoparticles (NPs). Cerium oxide nanoparticles (CeO2 NPs) are among the most abundantly produced nanomaterials in the world. Their widespread use raises fundamental questions related to the accumulation in the environment and further interactions with living organisms, especially plants. NPs present in either soil or soilless environments are absorbed by the plant root systems and further transported to the aboveground parts. After entering the cytoplasm, NPs interact with chloroplast, nucleus, and other structures responsible for metabolic processes at the cellular level. In recent years, several studies have shown the impact of nanoceria on plant growth and metabolic processes. Research performed on different plants has shown a dual role for CeO2 NPs. The observed effects can be positive or negative and strongly depend on the plant species, characterization, and concentrations of NPs. This review describes the impact of root-applied CeO2 NPs on plant growth, photosynthesis, metal homeostasis, and parameters of induced oxidative stress.

Nanoscience and technology as a pivot for sustainable agriculture and its One Health approach awareness

Nanoscience and technology have shown promise in revitalizing the agricultural sector and industries. This tool has gained the interest of many researchers as it can be utilized to drive sustainable agriculture by suggesting long-lasting solutions to different problems in the agricultural space. However, there is a paucity of data on its health implications for the environment, plants, animals, and humans. This review evaluated the cost-effectiveness and productivity of nanoscience and technologies. The review highlighted the underlying health implications of nanoscience and technology from a One Health perspective.

Nanotechnology in Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment

Traditional cancer diagnosis has been aided by the application of nanoparticles (NPs), which have made the process easier and faster. NPs possess exceptional properties such as a larger surface area, higher volume proportion, and better targeting capabilities. Additionally, their low toxic effect on healthy cells enhances their bioavailability and t-half by allowing them to functionally penetrate the fenestration of epithelium and tissues. These particles have attracted attention in multidisciplinary areas, making them the most promising materials in many biomedical applications, especially in the treatment and diagnosis of various diseases. Today, many drugs are presented or coated with nanoparticles for the direct targeting of tumors or diseased organs without harming normal tissues/cells. Many types of nanoparticles, such as metallic, magnetic, polymeric, metal oxide, quantum dots, graphene, fullerene, liposomes, carbon nanotubes, and dendrimers, have potential applications in cancer treatment and diagnosis. In many studies, nanoparticles have been reported to show intrinsic anticancer activity due to their antioxidant action and cause an inhibitory effect on the growth of tumors. Moreover, nanoparticles can facilitate the controlled release of drugs and increase drug release efficiency with fewer side effects. Nanomaterials such as microbubbles are used as molecular imaging agents for ultrasound imaging. This review discusses the various types of nanoparticles that are commonly used in cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Principles of risk decision-making

Risk management decisions in public health require consideration of a number of complex, often conflicting factors. The aim of this review was to propose a set of 10 fundamental principles to guide risk decision-making. Although each of these principles is sound in its own right, the guidance provided by different principles might lead the decision-maker in different directions. For example, where the precautionary principle advocates for preemptive risk management action under situations of scientific uncertainty and potentially catastrophic consequences, the principle of risk-based decision-making encourages decision-makers to focus on established and modifiable risks, where a return on the investment in risk management is all but guaranteed in the near term. To evaluate the applicability of the 10 principles in practice, one needs to consider 10 diverse risk issues of broad concern and explore which of these principles are most appropriate in different contexts. The 10 principles presented here afford substantive insight into the process of risk management decision-making, although decision-makers will ultimately need to exercise judgment in reaching appropriate risk decisions, accounting for all of the scientific and extra-scientific factors relevant to the risk decision at hand.

The Application of Nanoparticles in Diagnosis and Treatment of Kidney Diseases

Nanomedicine is currently showing great promise for new methods of diagnosing and treating many diseases, particularly in kidney disease and transplantation. The unique properties of nanoparticles arise from the diversity of size effects, used to design targeted nanoparticles for specific cells or tissues, taking renal clearance and tubular secretion mechanisms into account. The design of surface particles on nanoparticles offers a wide range of possibilities, among which antibodies play an important role. Nanoparticles find applications in encapsulated drug delivery systems containing immunosuppressants and other drugs, in imaging, gene therapies and many other branches of medicine. They have the potential to revolutionize kidney transplantation by reducing and preventing ischemia-reperfusion injury, more efficiently delivering drugs to the graft site while avoiding systemic effects, accurately localizing and visualising the diseased site and enabling continuous monitoring of graft function. So far, there are known nanoparticles with no toxic effects on human tissue, although further studies are still needed to confirm their safety.

MicroRNAs as a Suitable Biomarker to Detect the Effects of Long-Term Exposures to Nanomaterials. Studies on TiO2NP and MWCNT

The presence of nanomaterials (NMs) in the environment may represent a serious risk to human health, especially in a scenario of chronic exposure. To evaluate the potential relationship between NM-induced epigenetic alterations and carcinogenesis, the present study analyzed a panel of 33 miRNAs related to the cell transformation process in BEAS-2B cells transformed by TiO₂NP and long-term MWCNT exposure. Our battery revealed a large impact on miRNA expression profiling in cells exposed to both NMs. From this analysis, a small set of five miRNAs (miR-23a, miR-25, miR-96, miR-210, and miR-502) were identified as informative biomarkers of the transforming effects induced by NM exposures. The usefulness of this reduced miRNA battery was further validated in other previously generated transformed cell systems by long-term exposure to other NMs (CoNP, ZnONP, MSiNP, and CeO₂NP). Interestingly, the five selected miRNAs were consistently overexpressed in all cell lines and NMs tested. These results confirm the suitability of the proposed set of mRNAs to identify the potential transforming ability of NMs. Particular attention should be paid to the epigenome and especially to miRNAs for hazard assessment of NMs, as wells as for the study of the underlying mechanisms of action.

The distinct effect of titanium dioxide nanoparticles in primary and immortalized cell lines

The titanium dioxide nanoparticles (NPs) have been applied to biomedical, pharmaceutical, and food additive fields. However, the effect on health and the environment are conflicting; thus, it has been reviewing several times. In this context, establishing standard robust protocols for detecting cytotoxicity and genotoxicity of nanomaterials became essential for nanotechnology development. The cell type and the intrinsic characteristics of titanium dioxide NPs can influence nanotoxicity. In this work, the cyto- and genotoxicity effects of standard reference material titanium dioxide NPs in primary bovine fibroblasts and immortalized Chinese hamster ovary epithelial (CHO) cells were determined and compared for the first time. Titanium dioxide NPs exposure revealed no cytotoxicity for primary bovine fibroblasts, while only higher concentrations tested (10 μg/ml) induce genotoxic effects in this cell model. In contrast, the lower concentrations of the titanium dioxide NPs cause the cyto- and genotoxic effects in CHO cells. Therefore, our finding indicates that the CHO line was more sensitive toward the effects of titanium dioxide NPs than the primary bovine fibroblast, which should be valuable for their environmental risk assessment.