Abstract
Recently, magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) have gained much attention in the field of biomedical engineering for therapeutic as well as diagnostic purposes. Carbon magnetic nanoparticles (C-MNPs) are a class of MNPs categorized as organic nanoparticles. C-MNPs have been under considerable interest in studying in various applications such as magnetic resonance imaging, photothermal therapy, and intracellular transportof drugs. Research work is still largely in progress for testing the efficacy of C-MNPs on the theranostics platform in cellular studies and animal models. In this study, we evaluated the neurobehavioral toxicity parameters on the adult zebrafish (Danio rerio) at either low (1 ppm) or high (10 ppm) concentration level of C-MNPs over a period of two weeks by waterborne exposure. The physical properties of the synthesized C-MNPs were characterized by transmission electron microscopy, Raman, and XRD spectrum characterization. Multiple behavior tests for the novel tank, mirror biting, predator avoidance, conspecific social interaction, shoaling, and analysis of biochemical markers were also conducted to elucidate the corresponding mechanism. Our data demonstrate the waterborne exposure of C-MNPs is less toxic than the uncoated MNPs since neither low nor high concentration C-MNPs elicit toxicity response in behavioral and biochemical tests in adult zebrafish. The approach combining biochemical and neurobehavioral approaches would be helpful for understanding C-MNPs association affecting the bioavailability, biosafety, interaction, and uptake of these C-MNPs in the living organism.
Highlights
The unique characteristics of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) have demonstrated great potential in various fields of biomedical engineering applications such as bioseparation, contrast enhancement for magnetic resonance imaging, and intracellular drug delivery [1,2,3,4,5,6]
A combination of co-precipitation and the hydrothermal method was used for the synthesis of uncoated Fe3 O4 MNPs and carbon-coated Fe3 O4 MNPs, respectively.The Carbon magnetic nanoparticles (C-MNPs) acquired, are spherical in shape, the dark core of Fe3 O4 nanoparticles and grey carbon shell is noticeable in Figure 1B as determined by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), the image in inset shows good dispersion of resultant magnetic nanoparticles [24]
The locomotion trajectories of the control, 1 ppm, and 10 ppm C-MNPs-exposed fish in the mirror biting test are summarized in Figure 3G–I and Video S2 for better movement visualization. These results suggest that no significant alteration was observed in mirror biting aggressiveness tests in zebrafish, even though their locomotor activity was significantly lowered in the zebrafish group exposed to C-MNPs at a high concentration (10 ppm)
Summary
The unique characteristics of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) have demonstrated great potential in various fields of biomedical engineering applications such as bioseparation, contrast enhancement for magnetic resonance imaging, and intracellular drug delivery [1,2,3,4,5,6]. The uncoated MNPs exhibit various beneficial qualities of high surface to volume ratio and high magnetic moment, permitting manipulation of these MNPs by an external magnetic field [7,8]. Fe3 O4 in a small size (5–15 nm) has been shown to demonstrate chemical corrosion instability, which may cause partial oxidation into γ-Fe2 O3 [14,15], and aggregate under the influence of van der Waal forces, due to high surface energy among these particles [16]
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