Right or Left: The Role of Nanoparticles in Pulmonary Diseases

Abstract

Due to the rapid development of the nanotechnology industry in the last decade, nanoparticles (NPs) are omnipresent in our everyday life today. Many nanomaterials have been engineered for medical purposes. These purposes include therapy for pulmonary diseases. On other hand, people are endeavoring to develop nanomaterials for improvement or replacement of traditional therapies. On the other hand, nanoparticles, as foreign material in human bodies, are reported to have potential adverse effects on the lung, including oxidase stress, inflammation, fibrosis and genotoxicity. Further, these damages could induce pulmonary diseases and even injuries in other tissues. It seems that nanoparticles may exert two-sided effects. Toxic effects of nanomaterials should be considered when their use is developed for therapies. Hence this review will attempt to summarize the two-side roles of nanoparticles in both therapies for pulmonary diseases and initiation of lung diseases and even secondary diseases caused by lung injuries. Determinants of these effects such as physicochemical properties of nanoparticles will also be discussed.

Zinc oxide nanoparticle-induced atherosclerotic alterations in vitro and in vivo

“…One hypothesis states that NPs deposited in the lung elicit local inflammatory responses via oxidative stress that further develop into systemic oxidative stress/inflammation. 24 On the other hand, NPs deposited in the lung can translocate into the systemic circulation and directly interact with cardiovascular tissues to induce injury or inflammation. 25,26 ECs, which form the inner cellular lining of the entire cardiovascular system, have direct contact with NPs.…”

The curious case of how mimicking physiological complexity in in vitro models of the human respiratory system influences the inflammatory responses. A preliminary study focused on gold nanoparticles

“…Risk assessment studies indeed include investigatory research on the effects of inhaled NPs (Borm & Kreyling, 2004;Geiser & Kreyling, 2010;Jud, Clift, Petri-Fink, & Rothen-Rutishauser, 2013;Klein et al, 2012;Rogueda & Traini, 2007). The human respiratory system is in fact directly connected to the external environment and widely exposed to NPs with applications ranging from lung diseases treatment (Ahmad et al, 2015;Azarmi, Roa, & Lobenberg, 2008;Lu, Zhu, Chen, & Liu, 2014) to pulmonary administration (Mansour, Rhee, & Wu, X., 2009;Muralidharan, Malapit, Mallory, Hayes, & Mansour, 2015;Sung, Pulliam, & Edwards, 2007;Yang et al, 2008), or that are accidentally released into the air during their production or use (Kreyling, Hirn, & Schleh, 2010;Nazarenko, Han, Lioy, & Mainelis, 2011;Nazarenko, Zhen, Han, Lioy, & Mainelis, 2012;Yokel & Macphail, 2011). A number of local and systemic pathological responses can arise following NPs inhalation (Borm & Kreyling, 2004); these responses are associated with (1) NPs capability to cause inflammation in the lung (local adverse response), and/or (2) NPs translocation into the bloodstream and subsequent systemic toxic effects.…”

Pulmonary drug delivery systems of antibiotics for the treatment of respiratory tract infections

“…On the other hand, nanoparticles act as foreign materials, with special physiochemical properties, in human bodies and are recorded to have severe adverse effects on the lungs, like inflammation, fibrosis and mutations along with oxidative stress. Further, these damages could cause pulmonary diseases and diseases in the other parts of body [158]. Inhaled nanoparticles can be exhaled because of their extremely low mass.…”