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Toxicity of Nanoparticles: Second Edition

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Nanoscience".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2025 | Viewed by 153

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
1. Department of Molecular Biology and Translational Research, Institute of Rural Health, Jaczewskiego 2, 20-090 Lublin, Poland
2. World Institute for Family Health, University of Kalisz, Nowy Swiat 4, 62-800 Kalisz, Poland
Interests: nanotoxicology; impact of nanoparticles on cancer; pesticides toxicity; environmental health
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The rapid expansion of nanotechnologies promises to have significant beneficial impacts on society, yet there is increasing concern that exposure to nanoparticles (NPs) will have a negative impact on both human and environmental health. Nanoparticles can easily enter the human body and cross all intrinsic barriers, making them very useful as drug delivery vectors; on the other hand, NPs may interact with biological systems and induce potentially negative effects. Presently, there is increasing concern about the detrimental health effects due to NP exposure. Nanoparticles have been reported to induce oxidative stress, DNA damage, inflammation, and many other adverse effects that are known to be crucial for the development of lifestyle diseases.

Studies have shown that the toxic effects of NPs are mainly determined by several factors, such as physicochemical properties, dose, exposure pathways, and duration. The unique physicochemical properties of NPs confer not only promising biological effects but also pose unexpected toxic threats to the human body at the same time. The chronic exposure to low doses of noxious chemicals mainly of anthropogenic origin is inevitable; therefore, it is important to expand our knowledge about the mechanisms underlying the adverse effects of nanoparticles. Based on our current knowledge, it is challenging to elucidate the exact mechanisms of NP toxicity.

This Special Issue focuses on the in vitro and in vivo interactions of nanomaterials with biological systems at different levels of organization. We welcome both experimental works and review papers regarding the negative effects of nanoparticles on the molecular and cellular levels, on tissues and organs, and on whole organisms. We also welcome studies on animal model systems and the environmental and occupational exposure of humans to nanoparticles.

It is my pleasure to invite manuscript submissions for this Special Issue.

This Special Issue is supervised by Prof. Dr. Lucyna Kapka-Skrzypczak and assisted by our Topical Advisory Panel Member Dr. Magdalena Matysiak-Kucharek (Institute of Rural Health).

Prof. Dr. Lucyna Kapka-Skrzypczak
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • nanoparticles
  • nanotoxicity
  • exposure to nanoparticles
  • health effects
  • biological effects
  • oxidative stress
  • environmental health

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

18 pages, 1594 KiB  
Article
Uptake and Toxicity of Polystyrene NPs in Three Human Cell Lines
by Sylwia Męczyńska-Wielgosz, Katarzyna Sikorska, Malwina Czerwińska, Lucyna Kapka-Skrzypczak and Marcin Kruszewski
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2025, 26(10), 4783; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms26104783 - 16 May 2025
Viewed by 119
Abstract
Internalization of nanoparticles (NPs), including nanoplastic, is one of the key factors determining their toxicity. In this work, we studied the toxicity and mechanisms of the uptake of model fluorescent polystyrene NPs (PS NPs) of three different sizes (30, 50, and 100 nm) [...] Read more.
Internalization of nanoparticles (NPs), including nanoplastic, is one of the key factors determining their toxicity. In this work, we studied the toxicity and mechanisms of the uptake of model fluorescent polystyrene NPs (PS NPs) of three different sizes (30, 50, and 100 nm) in three human cancer cells lines; two originated from gut tissue (HT-29 and Caco-2) and one originated from liver tissue (Hep G2). Toxicity was measured by Neutral Red Assay (NRU), whereas mechanisms of uptake were studied using flow cytometry and different uptake inhibitors. The toxicity of the studied NPs followed a general rule observed for NPs—the smaller ones were more toxic than the larger ones. This relationship was dose dependent; however, the overall toxicity of the studied NPs was very low, despite the significant uptake of PS NPs. Although clathrin- and caveolin-dependent uptake is generally accepted as a major route of NP uptake, the inhibition of both mechanisms did not affect PS NP uptake in the cell lines studied in this work. Further experiments revealed that the major route of PS NP uptake in these cells is a scavenger receptor-mediated uptake. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Toxicity of Nanoparticles: Second Edition)
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