Need for detailed toxicological studies with nanomaterials

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• By Dhanavardhini Kalyanasundaram

Nanomaterials are small in size but they have a huge impact, which makes them more important and exciting in research. It is their unique feature of the reduced size, which makes them get widely employed in various applications in the field of science. The notable application is the medicinal area. Despite their unique nature, they have a few demerits. Their reduced size allows easy penetration into the cellular surface or tissue layer resulting in cytotoxicity of the organs, such as the kidneys, lungs, liver and brain. Notably, the brain and lungs get severe attacks from the nanomaterials. One of the parts of the lungs namely the alveolar sac entraps the nanostructures and settles them deep into the surface that causes localised cytotoxicity to the organ leading to metabolic dysfunction and eventually organ damage. The brain, which possesses a dual protective sheath known as the blood-brain barrier (BBB) also gets affected as a result of the accumulation process of nanomaterials. The development of nanotechnology in varied fields for product advancement with its enormous potential makes its application unavoidable. However, increased usage of these nanomaterials may cause unpredicted influence in living organisms. Therefore, it is necessary to perform a complete toxicological study of each nanoparticle before its commercialisation and environmental release.

Keywords: Toxicity, Internalisation, Organs, Cytotoxicity, Harmful side effects, Health impacts

Image source:
Colloidal nanoparticle of lead sulphide (selenide) with complete passivation by Zherebetskyy, available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Colloidal_nanoparticle_of_lead_sulfide_(selenide)_with_complete_passivation.png

Citation:
Dhanavardhini Kalyanasundaram. Need for detailed toxicological studies with nanomaterials. The Torch. 2020. 1 (6).
Available from: https://www.styvalley.com/pub/magazines/torch/read/need-for-detailed-toxicological-studies-with-nanomaterials/.

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