Abstract
Graphene nanomaterials have attracted a great interest during the last years for different applications, but their possible impact on different biological systems remains unclear. Here, an assessment to understand the toxicity of commercial polycarboxylate functionalized graphene nanoplatelets (GN) on the unicellular fungal model Saccharomyces cerevisiae was performed. While cell proliferation was not negatively affected even in the presence of 800 mg L−1 of the nanomaterial for 24 hours, oxidative stress was induced at a lower concentration (160 mg L−1), after short exposure periods (2 and 4 hours). No DNA damage was observed under a comet assay analysis under the studied conditions. In addition, to pinpoint the molecular mechanisms behind the early oxidative damage induced by GN and to identify possible toxicity pathways, the transcriptome of S. cerevisiae exposed to 160 and 800 mg L−1 of GN was studied. Both GN concentrations induced expression changes in a common group of genes (337), many of them related to the fungal response to reduce the nanoparticles toxicity and to maintain cell homeostasis. Also, a high number of genes were only differentially expressed in the GN800 condition (3254), indicating that high GN concentrations can induce severe changes in the physiological state of the yeast.
Highlights
Graphene nanomaterials have attracted a great interest during the last years for different applications, but their possible impact on different biological systems remains unclear
In case of the selected commercial polycarboxylate functionalized graphene nanoplatelets (GN), in a recent study from our research group (Anton et al 2018)[32], it was determined that in contrast to graphene oxide, its ability to interact with biomolecules was very low
The product used by Anton et al (2018) was exactly that used for this work (Sigma-Aldrich; ref: 806625; lot: MKBW5736V), the insights previously determined on its characteristics and properties are highly valuable for the present toxicology assessment
Summary
Graphene nanomaterials have attracted a great interest during the last years for different applications, but their possible impact on different biological systems remains unclear. To pinpoint the molecular mechanisms behind the early oxidative damage induced by GN and to identify possible toxicity pathways, the transcriptome of S. cerevisiae exposed to 160 and 800 mg L−1 of GN was studied Both GN concentrations induced expression changes in a common group of genes (337), many of them related to the fungal response to reduce the nanoparticles toxicity and to maintain cell homeostasis. These studies have been essential to obtain insights on how GFNs interact with biological systems and biomolecules for different applications, and to understand www.nature.com/scientificreports factors determining their toxicity, which have been found to be different depending on the animals or cell models used, the administration routes, or the physicochemical properties of the selected nanomaterials In these studies, several typical mechanisms underlying GFN toxicity have been revealed, for instance, physical destruction, induction of oxidative stress, DNA damage, inflammatory response, apoptosis, autophagy, and necrosis[6,7,8]. This study evaluates the toxicity of different GN concentrations for the yeast S. cerevisiae, through the analysis of cell viability, cytotoxicity, genotoxicity, and global transcriptional response
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