Integrated nanoparticle characterizaton and toxicity assessment

描述（由申请人提供）：虽然现在已经认识到纳米材料的制造可能会给人类和环境带来独特的风险，但纳米毒理学领域仍处于早期阶段。纳米材料是纳米技术的基石，它构成了各种各样的化合物。它们包括低维材料，如C60和无机纳米颗粒（NP），一维材料，如碳纳米管和本研究的重点无机纳米线（NW）。除了对碳纳米管的研究外，大多数毒理学研究都评估了无机纳米颗粒的影响。人们越来越期待无机纳米线比其他纳米材料得到更广泛的应用，但关于这些化合物的安全性信息却非常缺乏。因此，我们建议环境化学家和毒理学家合作开发知识，以尽量减少纳米线对人类健康的风险。在这篇论文中，我们将把重点放在不同长度和直径的银纳米线上，作为这类纳米材料的代表。我们将在工作中解决三个相互关联的问题。纳米线的内在物理化学性质对其在不同环境中的行为有何影响？纳米线的性质和环境对细胞和有机体的毒性有什么关系？纳米线在这些系统中导致不利影响的机制是什么？我们建议开发新的方法来评估纳米线的性质和毒性，这可能对其他纳米材料的评估具有普遍的适用性。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): While it is now recognized that the manufacture of nanomaterials may present unique risks to humans and the environment, the field of nanotoxicology remains at an early stage. Nanomaterials, the building blocks of nanotechnology, constitute a very diverse range of compounds. They include low dimensionality materials such as C60 and inorganic nanoparticles (NP), and one-dimensional materials such as carbon nanotubes and the focus of this study, inorganic nanowires (NW). With the exception of studies of carbon nanotubes, most toxicology studies have assessed the impacts of inorganic nanoparticles. There is a growing expectation that inorganic nanowires may be more broadly utilized than other nanomaterials but there is a remarkable lack of safety information on these compounds. We therefore propose a collaboration between environmental chemists and toxicologists to develop the knowledge to minimize the risks of nanowires to human health. We will focus in this proposal on silver nanowires of varying lengths and diameters as a representative of this class of nanomaterials. We will address three inter-related questions in our work. What is the role of the intrinsic physicochemical properties of nanowires on their behavior in different environments? What is the relationship between nanowire properties and the environment on cellular and organismal toxicity? And what are the mechanisms by which nanowires lead to adverse effects in these systems? We propose to develop new approaches for the assessment of nanowire properties and toxicity which could have general applicability for assessment of other nanomaterials of concern. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Nanowires are a form of nanomaterials that are expected to be used in a broad array of commercial and consumer products. Despite their likely wide spread use, there is very limited information on the safety of nanowires. We propose to assess the safety of nanowires using state of the art toxicology approaches.