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Overcoming obstacles in nanotoxicology

Do existing toxicological methods apply to nanoparticles? This was the general question at the conference “Overcoming Obstacles to Effective Research Design in Nanotoxicology” held in USA in April, and DTC was present. Toxicological aspects of nanoparticles were discussed as well as the problems that arise when nanoparticles are subjected to toxicological testing. Toxicological data and knowledge of physical-chemical properties of engineered nanoparticles – such as nanotubes, surface coatings and drug delivery devices – are very sparse.

It seems that where “traditional” toxicology links dose to a concentrationvolume ratio, nanotoxicology must also take a surface area-mass-ratio into consideration. In the lab, some nanoparticles have been shown to form agglomerates readily, and the question raised at the conference was how nanotoxicological testing should take these issues into account and whether agglomerates also form in “real life”.

Some nanoparticles accelerate the formation of free radicals – a phenolmenon that seems related to the particle size and to the surface area-massratio. These problems are just a fraction of the issues that must be accounted for in establishing the discipline “nanotoxicology”, and the conference emphasized the big need for physical-chemical and toxicological studies of nanoparticles.

Toxicology News. July 2006.