Investigation of toxicological effects of amorphous silica nanostructures with amine-functionalized surfaces on Vero cells

Comparative cytotoxic study of silica materials functionalised with essential oil components in HepG2 cells

“…The IC50 value found for functionalised chitosan was around 1 mg/mL after 72 h of exposure, while cell viability was over 80% for the higher tested concentration (2 mg/mL) of bare chitosan nanoparticles. Other researchers have also observed increased cytotoxic behaviour of silica materials after different surface chemical treatments (Santos et al, 2010) or by anchoring functional groups, such as amine molecules (Bhattacharjee et al, 2010;Puerari et al, 2019;Ruizendaal et al, 2009;Vicentini et al, 2017) or carboxylic acid groups (Petushkov et al, 2009).…”

“…Other processes, such as cellular uptake and localisation, are also regulated by different surface modifications (Slowing et al, 2006). Puerari et al (2019) have demonstrated that primary and tri-amine functionalised SAS nanoparticles are more cytotoxic than pristine material to Vero cells due to increased ROS production and lipid peroxidation. These authors have hypothesised that functionalisation promotes a Trojan horse effect, by means of which cells recognise molecules on the material's surface as nutrients, which facilitates entry in the cytosol.…”

Toxicological effects of pure and amine-functionalized ZnO nanorods on Daphnia magna and Lactuca sativa

“…Thus, the ionic strength of the medium induces agglomeration of particles causing an increase of the ED. Also, the functionalization with the APTMS molecule resulted in increased pH in the research by Puerari et al 43 This behavior can be attributed to the amine-functionalization (weak organic base group) on the surface of the NMs promoting greater interaction between the NM surfaces and the aqueous medium. 56 From the BET analysis, it was possible to observe that functionalization increased the NR surface area (Table 1).…”

“…This increase of stability due to the APTMS molecule was also observed by Niu et al, when the coating recovered NPs of silicon carbide, 53 and by Puerari et al, when it recovered SiO 2 NMs. 43 Metal oxide NPs have a strong tendency to agglomerate due to their surface charges 54,55 and this characteristic is evident when the medium has sufficient ionic complexity. This behavior could be seen in the ED values found for the NRs diluted in M4 and ISO when compared to ROW.…”

“…The same structures were toxicologically evaluated in Vero cells in the Puerari et al research. 43 As a result, it was found that amine-functionalized materials were more cytotoxic to Vero cells than SiO 2 NSs without functionalization, possibly due to the Trojan horse effect.…”