Nanoparticles and nanomaterials as inevitable modern toxic agents. Review. Part 2. Main areas of research on toxicity and techniques to measure a content of nanoparticles in tissues

Abstract

The second part of the review considers the following three main areas of research on the toxicity of nanoparticles (NPs): environmental toxicity, molecular mechanisms of toxicity, and reproductive toxicity. The studies carried out on aquatic and soil model organisms are described, with consideration of the effects of NPs in concentrations close to natural in water with different salinity, as well as in comparison with the effects of ions. The articles devoted to various aspects of NP-induced oxidative stress are listed, the estimations of genotoxicity and mutagenicity of NPs using different standard methods are described, and the currently known data on the formation of protein crowns around NPs are considered. Questions are stated about the dose-dependence of effects and the influence of the applied stabilizing coating. The influence of NPs on the prenatal and postnatal development of various model vertebrate species is considered, which includes morphological disturbances, changes in gene expression and in the behavior of grown animals, as well as the influence on the reproductive system in adult females and males. The main methods for the quantitative measurements of the content of NPs in biological samples are also considered as the necessary stage of research on the toxicity of NPs for humans and animals.