Research Information System
in: Nanoscale Fabrication, Optimization, Scale-up and Biological Aspects of Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology, Alexandru Mihai Grumezescu, Editor, William Andrew Publishing , London, pp.545-577, 2017
The nanotechnology industry is developing rapidly with promises of significant
advantages that will have remarkable economic and scientific influences, applicable to all areas ranging from aerospace engineering to medical healthcare.
Because of the beneficial physico-chemical features of nanomaterials, the development and design of novel engineered nanomaterials have been of main importance for industry. A nanomaterial is described as a substance with at least one
dimension ,100 nm in size. They could take many different forms such as rods,
wires, tubes, or spheres, with more elaborate structures developed, such as nanoonions and nanopeapods (Imasaka et al., 2006; Warner et al., 2008). As nanomaterials become more widely used, human exposure to nanomaterials is inevitable.
Their small size could be responsible for adverse biological effects. Nanotoxicology is arising as an important subdiscipline of nanotechnology.
Nanotoxicology refers to the study of the interactions of nanostructures with biological systems. An understanding of the relationship between the physical and
chemical properties of the nanostructures and their in vivo behavior would provide a fundamental to assess toxic response of the nanostructures (Lewinski et al.,
2008; Service, 2003). At lower concentrations, the cellular changes that may
emerge, which may not be concluded in cell death but could contribute to human
health risks. The most important human health risk is DNA damage induction.
The estimated 104 DNA damage events occur in a cell per day caused by exposure to genotoxic substances of environmental origin or endogenously produced.
DNA has important biological functions in living systems. Its important biological functions are the primary target molecule for most anticancer therapies in
accordance with the cell biology. Exposure to endogenous free radicals and exogenous mutagens has been determined to affect the instability of the genomes.
These carcinogens resulted in some degenerative diseases, including cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s disease and cancer. By this means, the carcinogenic processes and the cancer risk is associated with high rate of DNA damage and
chromosomal defect (Bonassi et al., 2000). Consequently, the detection of DNA
damage has become a focus in DNA research fields (Lee et al., 2008; Rawle
et al., 2008; Yun et al., 2007).
To apply genotoxicity testing and to evaluate the carcinogenic or mutagenic
potential of new substances is an important part of preclinical safety testing of new
pharmaceuticals, which is a requirement before entering into Phase I/II clinical
trials. Assays for the detection of oxidative damaged DNA in cells and animal tissues have been incorporated into the standard battery of nanotoxicology testing
methods.
This chapter focuses on studies published over the past decade that attempted to
detect DNA damage associated with exposure to nanomaterials. Reviewing some
selected studies using separation techniques (electrophoresis and high performance
liquid chromatography (HPLC)) and electrochemical methods will help improve
the current understanding of the potential DNA damages of nanomaterials.