Mechanistic insight into the impact of nanomaterials on asthma and allergic airway disease

Abstract

Asthma is a chronic respiratory disease known for its high susceptibility to environmental exposure. Inadvertent inhalation of engineered or incidental nanomaterials is a concern for human health, particularly for those with underlying disease susceptibility. In this review we provide a comprehensive analysis of those studies focussed on safety assessment of different nanomaterials and their unique characteristics on asthma and allergic airway disease. These include in vivo and in vitro approaches as well as human and population studies. The weight of evidence presented supports a modifying role for nanomaterial exposure on established asthma as well as the development of the condition. Due to the variability in modelling approaches, nanomaterial characterisation and endpoints used for assessment in these studies, there is insufficient information for how one may assign relative hazard potential to individual nanoscale properties. New developments including the adoption of standardised models and focussed in vitro and in silico approaches have the potential to more reliably identify properties of concern through comparative analysis across robust and select testing systems. Importantly, key to refinement and choice of the most appropriate testing systems is a more complete understanding of how these materials may influence disease at the cellular and molecular level. Detailed mechanistic insight also brings with it opportunities to build important population and exposure susceptibilities into models. Ultimately, such approaches have the potential to more clearly extrapolate relevant toxicological information, which can be used to improve nanomaterial safety assessment for human disease susceptibility.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12989-017-0228-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Surface PEGylation suppresses pulmonary effects of CuO in allergen-induced lung inflammation

“…The most common phenotype of asthma found in children and half of adults is atopic in nature [11]. The classical asthmatic response can be divided into early and late phase reactions.…”

“…Pathomechanistically, the allergens cause a complex immune response that starts with the activation and differentiation of allergenspecific CD4+ T helper (Th) 2 cells. Th2 lymphocytes mediate their functions by releasing Th2 cytokines IL-4, IL-5, and IL-13 [11]. IL-4 switches B-cell antibody production to IgE that subsequently activates the highaffinity IgE receptor FcεRI-carrying mast cells, eosinophils and basophils.…”

Non-Functionalized Ultrasmall Silica Nanoparticles Directly and Size-Selectively Activate T Cells

“…[14][15][16] Humoral immunity has also been found to increase with silica exposure, as SNP-treated animals show greater immunoglobulin responses to co-administered protein antigen compared to the non-silica-treated controls. 17,18 Although such cellular responses to silica particles are established, the impact of the much smaller fraction (i.e., USSN) remains unknown in spite of potential human exposure and emerging clinical applications. 7,19 Here, we investigated the response of primary human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) to a range of sub-10 nm diameter amorphous silica particles plus a 16 nm silica comparator (i.e., non-USSN), all synthesized through size-selective aqueous methods.…”

Urban Aerosol Size Distributions: A Global Perspective

“…asthma (Anderson et al, 2012;Delfino et al, 2005;Meldrum et al, 2017;Oberdörster et al, 2005;Pietropaoli et al, 2004;Rychlik et al, 2019;Tsiouri et al, 2015;Valavanidis et al, 2008). As illustrated in Fig.…”

“…Urban aerosol measurements are critical for monitoring the extent of urban air pollution, identifying pollutant sources, understanding aerosol transport and transformation mechanisms, and evaluating human exposure and health outcomes (Asmi et al, 2011;Azimi et al, 2014;Harrison et al, 2011a;Hussein et al, 2003;Morawska et al, 1998;Peng et al, 2014;Shiraiwa et al, 2017;Vu et al, 2015;Wu et al, 2008). Human exposure to aerosols in urban environments is responsible for adverse health effects, including mortality and morbidity due to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, asthma, and neural diseases (Allen et al, 2017;Burnett et al, 2018;Delfino et al, 2005;Meldrum et al, 2017;Oberdörster et al, 2005;Rychlik et al, 2019;Shiraiwa et al, 2017;Sioutas et al, 2005). Improved characterization of urban aerosols is needed to better understand the impact of aerosol exposure on human health and to evaluate the efficacy of current and future air quality legislation.…”