Abstract
The use of cadmium sulphide quantum dot (CdS QD)-enabled products has become increasingly widespread. The prospect of their release in the environment is raising concerns. Here we have used the yeast model Saccharomyces cerevisiae to determine the potential impact of CdS QD nanoparticles on living organisms. Proteomic analyses and cell viability assays performed after 9 h exposure revealed expression of proteins involved in oxidative stress and reduced lethality, respectively, whereas oxidative stress declined, and lethality increased after 24 h incubation in the presence of CdS QDs. Quantitative proteomics using the iTRAQ approach (isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation) revealed that key proteins involved in essential biological pathways were differentially regulated over the time course of the experiment. At 9 h, most of the glycolytic functions increased, and the abundance of the number of heat shock proteins increased. This contrasts with the situation at 24 h where glycolytic functions, some heat shock proteins as well as oxidative phosphorylation and ATP synthesis were down-regulated. It can be concluded from our data that cell exposure to CdS QDs provokes a metabolic shift from respiration to fermentation, comparable to the situation reported in some cancer cell lines.
Highlights
Engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) show novel and interesting physico-chemical properties that have stimulated their use in many products currently available on the market [1]
The colony spot assay showed that yeast cells grew better on yeast extract-peptone-dextrose (YPD) than SD medium, YPD was chosen for all subsequent experiments (Figure 1A)
When nystatin was added at 0.25 mg L−1 [24], growth curves were comparable to the corresponding controls in YPD (Figure 1B)
Summary
Engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) show novel and interesting physico-chemical properties that have stimulated their use in many products currently available on the market [1]. Among the numerous types of ENMs, quantum dots (QDs) are nanocrystals of semiconducting materials measuring around 2–10 nm, composed of metals belonging to groups II-V or III-V of the periodic table. They consist of a coated semiconductor inorganic core to improve optical and electronic properties [5,6]. Owing to their narrow emission waveband, bright fluorescence tuneable according to their dimensions, high photo-stability and broad UV excitation, QDs were initially adopted in precision optical devices [7], solar cells [8], new generation LEDs and lasers [9,10]. More applications of QDs include medical diagnostic tools and imaging detection systems for biomarkers of cancer cells [11,12,13], immunoassays, and cancer therapy [14,15], as well as transport vehicles for DNA, proteins and drugs to degenerative cells [16,17,18,19]
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