Biosafety Evaluation of Nanoparticles in View of Genotoxicity and Carcinogenicity Studies: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Nanoparticles (NPs) are used in various forms in consumer products including, cosmetics, food packaging, textiles and also in air and water cleaning, production of electro chromic windows, or smart windows and gas sensors. Many NPs have also been evaluated for potential use in biomedical applications as efficient delivery carriers for cancer diagnosis and therapy. Nowadays, NPs are being developed to create fascinating nanotechnology products. To develop NPs for broad applications, potential risks to human health and the environment should be evaluated and taken into consideration. Again, to translate these nanomaterials to the clinic and industrial domains, their biosafety needs to be verified, particularly in terms of genotoxic and carcinogenic effects. To evaluate evidenced-based practices for NPs safety, we performed a systematic review of the published English-language literature. We performed a systematic keyword search of PubMed for original research articles pertaining to reports on assessment of risks due to carcinogenic and mutagenic effects by different NPs. We identified 362 original articles available for analysis. The included studies were published between 1993 and 2012. The in vivo or in vitro genotoxicity studies were performed on only 18 out of 148 kinds of NPs in industry today. Likewise, the carcinogenicity investigations were performed on only 14 out of 148 NPs. The 10 types of the NPs including some titanium, aluminium, carbon black and silver molecules were found to have both mutagenic and carcinogenic potential. The important finding was also that there is a lack of systematic assessment of the DNA damaging and carcinogenic potential of NPs in spite of their extensive use in nanotechnological applications.

Evaluation of cytotoxic, oxidative stress and genotoxic responses of hydroxyapatite nanoparticles on human blood cells

“…Thus, studying the toxicity of nanomaterials is of importance to provide guidance to occupational health and safety (Li et al, 2008;Liu et al, 2011). The discussion about safety concerns associated with small particles is ongoing for many decades and is largely related to potential risks following inhalative exposure (e.g., Gao et al, 2013;Schmid et al, 2009;Turkez et al, 2013a;Wang et al, 2013). In particular, ultrafine particles or NPs are the focus of the debate (e.g., ECETOC, 2006;Singh et al, 2013), and usually meant to have one or more size dimensions between 0.1 and 100 nm (Hasegawa et al, 2012).…”

The Risk Evaluation of Tungsten Oxide Nanoparticles in Cultured Rat Liver Cells for Its Safe Applications in Nanotechnology

“…But the toxic effects of nano sized particles have not fully studied, except for some inorganic and organic NPs. In fact, a recent report indicated that there was a lack of systematic assessment of the DNA damaging and carcinogenic potential of NPs in spite of their extensive use in nanotechnological applications (Turkez et al 2013b). Tungsten (VI) oxide (or tungsten trioxide: WO 3 ) is a chemical compound containing oxygen and the transition metal tungsten.…”

Health risk assessments of lithium titanate nanoparticles in rat liver cell model for its safe applications in nanopharmacology and nanomedicine

“…But the toxic effects of nano-sized particles were not fully detailed except for some titanium, tungsten, cadmium and zinc oxide nanoparticles (Zhang et al 2013). However, the recent report indicated that there was a lack of systematic assessment of the DNA damaging and carcinogenic potential of NPs in spite of their extensive use in nanotechnological applications (Turkez et al 2013b).…”