Nanomaterial Toxicity

Nanomaterial Toxicity

The rapid increase in the manufacture and wide-spread use of nanoparticles (NPs) have simultaneously triggered a need for appropriate safety assessment strategies. Indeed, the small size and high surface-to-volume ratio of NPs compared to their ionic counterparts, strongly influence their physiochemical and toxicokinetic properties. Additionally, owing to their small size, NPs can pass through the biological barrier and enter cells.  Currently, nanotoxicology is confronted with various challenges; among which the multitude of materials requiring investigation and the understanding of the interactions between NPs and biological systems.

In order to study the response of cells to toxic compounds or nanoparticles, changes in elemental composition – referred to as the cell ionome[1] – can be used to determine cells’ states of development and growth rates. Single-cell analysis by icpTOF enables the simultaneous detection of all elements in a single cell, thereby allowing for highly sensitive elemental analysis, while retaining valuable information related to cell-to-cell variance. This new promising technique has opened new perspective of research for nanotoxicology exposure studies, namely by enabling quantification of the cellular uptake and depuration rates of NPs.

[1] Malinouski, M., et al., Genome-wide RNAi ionomics screen reveals new genes and regulation of human trace element metabolism. Nature Communications, 2014. 5: p. 3301.