Cytoprotection, Genoprotection, and Dermal Exposure Assessment of Chitosan-Based Agronanofungicides

Abstract

Health risks which result from exposure to pesticides have sparked awareness among researchers, triggering the idea of developing nanoencapsulation pesticides with the aim to enhance cytoprotection as well as genoprotection of the pesticides. In addition, nanocapsules of pesticides have slow release capability, high bioavailability, and site-specific delivery, which has attracted great interest from researchers. Hence, the objective of this work is to synthesize a nanoformulation of a fungicide of different sizes, namely, chitosan-hexaconazole nanoparticles (18 nm), chitosan-dazomet nanoparticles (7 nm), and chitosan-hexaconazole-dazomet nanoparticles (5 nm), which were then subjected to toxicological evaluations, including cytotoxicity, genotoxicity, cell death assay, and dermal irritation assays. Incubation of chitosan-based nanofungicides with V79-4 hamster lung cell did not reveal cytotoxicity or genotoxicity, potentially suggesting that encapsulation with chitosan reduces direct toxicity of the toxic fungicides. Meanwhile, pure fungicide revealed its high cytotoxic effect on V79-4 hamster lung cells. In addition, dermal exposure assessment on rabbits revealed that chitosan-hexaconazole nanoparticles are classified under corrosive subcategory 1C, while chitosan-dazomet nanoparticles are classified under corrosive subcategory 1B. Moreover, both chitosan-hexaconazole nanoparticles and chitosan-dazomet nanoparticles are classified as causing mild irritation.

Some Emerging Opportunities of Nanotechnology Development for Soilless and Microgreen Farming

“…), with four times lower halfmaximal effective concentration (EC 50 ) and disease reduction up to 75% [82]. Furthermore, chitosan-based agronanofungicides phytotoxicity, cytotoxicity, and genotoxicity studies revealed the superiority of the chitosan nanoparticles, in which they act as a defensive wall to shield the fungicide's toxic effect on oil palm seedlings, cells, and DNA [83,84]. Long half-lives (t 1/2 ) of fungicide in stem tissue and leaf tissue were also discovered at 383 and 515 days, respectively, indicating high uptake and retention time, indicating the ideal desired properties for chitosan-based agronanofungicides for improved management of oil palm basal stem rot disease [85].…”

Abrogation of methyl methanesulphonate (MMS)-induced cytotoxic and genotoxic effects of tropical fruit juice mixture on fibroblast cells

“…Changes within genetic materials can occur directly or indirectly, thereby affecting somatic or germ cells that may be passed on to the next generation (Basu, 2018). Damages to DNA caused by free radicals, ionising radiations, alkylating agents, and nanoparticles could be DNA strand breaks, DNA adducts, or other types of DNA-base modifications which are recognised and fixed by various DNA repair mechanisms (Chatterjee and Walker, 2017;Maluin et al, 2020;Siew et al, 2020).…”