Lanone Sophie, Boczkowski Jorge
INSERM U700, Université Paris 7, Faculté de Médecine, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Hôpital Bichat, Cedex 18, France.
Curr Mol Med. 2006 Sep;6(6):651-63. doi: 10.2174/156652406778195026.
Nanotechnologies, defined as techniques aimed to conceive, characterize and produce material at the nanometer scale, represent a fully expanding domain, and one can predict without risk that production and utilization of nanomaterials will increase exponentially in the coming years. Applications of nanotechnologies are numerous, in constant development, and their potential use in the medical field as diagnosis and therapeutics tools is very attractive. The size particularity of these nanomaterials gives them novel properties, allowing them to adopt new comportments because of the laws of quantum physics that exist at this scale. However, worries are expressed regarding the exact properties that make these nanomaterials attractive, and questions are raised regarding their potential toxicity, their long-term secondary effects or their biodegradability, particularly when thinking of their use in the (nano)medical field. These questions are justified by the knowledge of the toxic effects of atmospheric pollution micrometric particles on health, and the fear to get an amplification of these effects because of the size of the materials blamed. In this paper, we first expose the sensed medical applications of nanomaterials, and the physicochemical and molecular determinants potentially responsible for nanomaterials biological effects. Finally, we present a synthesis of the actual knowledge regarding toxicological effects of nanomaterials. It is clear that, in regard to the almost empty field of what is known on the subject, there's an urge to better understand biological effects of nanomaterials, which will allow their safe use, in particular in the nanomedicine field.
纳米技术被定义为旨在构思、表征和生产纳米级材料的技术，是一个正在全面扩展的领域，而且可以毫无风险地预测，未来几年纳米材料的生产和使用将呈指数级增长。纳米技术的应用众多，且在不断发展，其在医学领域作为诊断和治疗工具的潜在用途非常有吸引力。这些纳米材料的尺寸特殊性赋予了它们新的特性，由于在这个尺度上存在的量子物理定律，使它们能够呈现出新的行为。然而，人们对使这些纳米材料具有吸引力的确切特性表示担忧，并对其潜在毒性、长期副作用或生物降解性提出了疑问，尤其是在考虑它们在（纳米）医学领域的应用时。鉴于对大气污染微米级颗粒对健康的毒性影响的了解，以及担心由于所指责材料的尺寸而使这些影响放大，这些问题是合理的。在本文中，我们首先阐述纳米材料在医学上的潜在应用，以及可能导致纳米材料生物效应的物理化学和分子决定因素。最后，我们对有关纳米材料毒理学效应的现有知识进行了综述。显然，鉴于在该领域已知的内容几乎空白，迫切需要更好地了解纳米材料的生物效应，这将有助于它们的安全使用，特别是在纳米医学领域。
