Analyst View Article Online

EDITORIAL

View Journal | View Issue

Editorial – Analytical Toxicology of Nanoparticles

Published on 20 December 2013. Downloaded on 08/10/2014 21:09:27.

Cite this: Analyst, 2014, 139, 868

Christy Haynes

DOI: 10.1039/c3an90114a www.rsc.org/analyst

It is my pleasure to introduce this themed issue of Analyst, devoted to analytical challenges in nanoparticle toxicology research. Nanotoxicity research has grown drastically over the past decade, with a large number of published manuscripts, many conference presentations, specic funding opportunities, and the emergence of new professional organizations and journals. However, the eld, considering whether or not nanoparticles have unique toxicity effects on biological or ecological systems, suffers from the intractably large number of possible nanoparticles (considering material, size, shape, structure, surface chemistry, aggregation state, etc.) and possible interaction sites (various sites in the

University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA. E-mail: [email protected]

human body and all elements of the ecosystem). Thus, one must consider how we can develop analysis methods that will give high-quality information that can be used predictively among the variety of nanomaterials and complex biological environments. In various gatherings of researchers in this eld, including conferences, workshops, and in Professional Society reports, interested parties are enunciating the need for new and better analytical methods, partially because standard toxicity assays sometimes fail in the presence of nanoparticles and partially because there are new complexities when measuring nanoscale materials. The strengths and perspectives of analytical scientists are critical in the eld of nanotoxicity: carefully considering controls and complex matrix effects, providing routes to

Christy Haynes was an undergraduate at Macalester College, a graduate student at Northwestern University, and a postdoctoral fellow at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill – all in the eld of Chemistry. She currently mentors a group of nine doctoral students and as many undergraduate researchers at the University of Minnesota where her group develops analytical techniques to explore questions in immunology, toxicology, and hematology while also keeping an active materials chemistry effort.

868 | Analyst, 2014, 139, 868–869

multiplex and high-throughput analyses, and developing new methods to detect small amounts of dynamic materials. With these challenges in mind, various contributors were invited to share their work and perspective, focusing on and solving analytical challenges related to nanoparticle toxicology assessment. The breadth of elds represented in the 11 manuscripts that make up this themed issue is impressive, with contributions from analytical chemists, surface scientists, soil scientists, and freshwater biologists, among others. This is a tribute to the broad interest and highly multidisciplinary nature of the eld of nanotoxicology. Similarly, the nanoparticle materials considered are broad, including Ag, Au, Ag/Au alloys, silica, titania, polymer, and carbon-based nanoparticles, among others. The methods employed for nanoparticle or toxicity analysis are also varied – some are traditional colloidal analysis methods whereas others are adapted from other elds. For example, Martin and coworkers used mid-infrared analysis (comparing attenuated total reectance FT-IR to synchrotron radiation-based FTIR) to examine the interaction between carbon-based nanomaterials and either Gram-negative or Gram-positive bacteria. The researchers found that the two different variations of FT-IR gave similar information and that, while there was some similarity among the biochemical

This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2014

View Article Online

Published on 20 December 2013. Downloaded on 08/10/2014 21:09:27.

Editorial

signatures measured with varied materials, there were also some distinctions that may be useful as toxicity biomarkers. In another contribution, Bolea and coworkers used asymmetric eld ow fractionation to help characterize Ag nanoparticle size, dissolution, and acquired protein corona in cell culture medium as they considered toxicity to cultured cells. In their contribution, Cohen and co-workers employ data mining techniques to examine results of a high-throughput nanotoxicity screen and nd some clustering in the data that indicates convergence on particular biological pathways. The model biological and ecological systems represented here are also widely varied, ranging from a model blood–

This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2014

Analyst

brain barrier to bacteria to zebrash embryos. In the latter model, Pedersen and colleagues showed the size-dependent phototoxicity of titania nanoparticles to zebrash embryos, as evidenced by increased reactive oxygen species and DNA damage. To bookend the new experimental methods and results, this themed issue also includes a Minireview by Grassian and colleagues focused on using surface science spectroscopic analysis to characterize critical solid/liquid interfaces in nanotoxicity studies and a Critical Review by Klaper and colleagues about the newest methods in genotoxicity analysis. Clearly, there are a lot of exciting ways that advanced analytical methods are contributing to the eld of nanoparticle

toxicity, but many challenges remain, including the need for (1) dynamic, realtime monitoring of nanoparticle/biological interactions and nanoparticle coronas within both biological and ecological matrices, (2) methods to detect engineered nanoparticles at the concentrations currently present in the environment, and (3) models that predict nanoparticle exposure levels and nanoparticle toxicity based on the input nanoparticle material, size, shape, and surface chemistry. Hopefully, these critical advances in the eld of nanotoxicity will build on those published in this themed collection and will soon appear in future Analyst issues. Christy Haynes, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.

Analyst, 2014, 139, 868–869 | 869

Editorial--analytical toxicology of nanoparticles.

Editorial--analytical toxicology of nanoparticles. - PDF Download Free
158KB Sizes 0 Downloads 0 Views