Toxicity of copper oxide nanoparticles: a review study

Abstract

Copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO NPs) use has exponentially increased in various applications (such as industrial catalyst, gas sensors, electronic materials, biomedicines, environmental remediation) due to their flexible properties, i.e. large surface area to volume ratio. These broad applications, however, have increased human exposure and thus the potential risk related to their short-and long-term toxicity. Their release in environment has drawn considerable attention which has become an eminent area of research and development. To understand the toxicological impact of CuO NPs, this review summarises the in-vitro and in-vivo toxicity of CuO NPs subjected to species (bacterial, algae, fish, rats, human cell lines) used for toxicological hazard assessment. The key factors that influence the toxicity of CuO NPs such as particle shape, size, surface functionalisation, time-dose interaction and animal and cell models are elaborated. The literature evidences that the CuO NPs exposure to the living systems results in reactive oxygen species generation, oxidative stress, inflammation, cytotoxicity, genotoxicity and immunotoxicity. However, the physio-chemical characteristics of CuO NPs, concentration, mode of exposure, animal model and assessment characteristics are the main perspectives that define toxicology of CuO NPs.

Genotoxicity of Nanomaterials: Advanced In Vitro Models and High Throughput Methods for Human Hazard Assessment—A Review

“…With both the micronucleus and mouse lymphoma assay, the smaller the Ag NMs, the greater the cyto- and genotoxicity [ 54 ]. Also other studies investigated the contribution of nano- and micro-sized fractions (titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) [ 55 ], gold (Au) [ 56 ], cobalt chrome [ 57 ], polystyrene [ 58 ], silica [ 59 ], Ag [ 54 , 60 , 61 ], Kaolin [ 62 ], ZnO [ 32 ], copper (Co) [ 63 ]. Using the mini-gel comet assay Lebedová et al studied the size-dependent genotoxicity of Ag, Au and platinum (Pt) NMs [ 64 ].…”

“…This finding may be associated with abilities that reduce the formation of free radicals mediated by TiO 2 NMs [ 69 ], change NMs’ agglomeration stage [ 70 ] and influence the interaction with biological components [ 71 ]. A relationship between genotoxicity and surface composition has also been demonstrated for many other metal and metal oxide particles [ 61 , 63 , 71 , 72 , 73 , 74 , 75 ] as well as for biopolymer particles [ 76 ].…”

Reduction of Health Care-Associated Infections (HAIs) with Antimicrobial Inorganic Nanoparticles Incorporated in Medical Textiles: An Economic Assessment

“…This study does not incorporate the toxicity potential of NPs embedded in the functional textiles. Extant literature indicates that Copper and Silver NPs result in several adverse effects such as reactive oxygen species generation, oxidative stress, inflammation, cytotoxicity, genotoxicity and immunotoxicity [67][68][69][70]. Physicochemical characteristics, such as particle shape, size, surface functionalization, the exposure dose, duration and mode are the main factors that define the toxicity of the nanoparticles [71].…”

Toxicity of Nanoparticles in Biomedical Application: Nanotoxicology

“…Several studies have shown that chemically synthesized NPs have high toxicity on human cells due to the presence of synthetic chemicals as surface functional and capping agents, compared to biosynthesized nanoparticles that possess biocompatible surface functional groups [6]. On the contrary, certain biosynthesized nanoparticles also exhibit toxicity upon reaction with cells, while disintegrating into its simpler forms or due to accumulation [7,8]. e scope of nanotoxicology is aimed at identifying potential hazards that are useful for the safety evaluation of nanomedicines.…”