Mayne Richard, Whiting James, Adamatzky Andrew
Unconventional Computing Laboratory, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK.
Bionanoscience. 2018;8(1):90-94. doi: 10.1007/s12668-017-0425-z. Epub 2017 Jun 22.
The nanotechnology revolution has allowed us to speculate on the possibility of hybridising nanoscale materials with live substrates, yet significant doubt still remains pertaining to the effects of nanomaterials on biological matter. In this investigation, we cultivate the ciliated protistic pond-dwelling microorganism in the presence of excessive quantities of magnetite nanoparticles in order to deduce potential beneficial applications for this technique, as well as observe any deleterious effects on the organisms' health. Our findings indicate that this variety of nanoparticle is well-tolerated by cells, who were observed to consume them in quantities exceeding 5-12% of their body volume: cultivation in the presence of magnetite nanoparticles does not alter cell volume, swimming speed, growth rate or peak colony density and cultures may persist in nanoparticle-contaminated media for many weeks. We demonstrate that cells ingest starch-coated magnetite nanoparticles which facilitates their being magnetically immobilised whilst maintaining apparently normal ciliary dynamics, thus demonstrating that nanoparticle biohybridisation is a viable alternative to conventional forms of ciliate quieting. Ingested magnetite nanoparticle deposits appear to aggregate, suggesting that (a) the process of being internalised concentrates and may therefore detoxify (i.e. render less reactive) nanomaterial suspensions in aquatic environments, and (b) is a candidate organism for programmable nanomaterial manipulation and delivery.
纳米技术革命使我们能够推测将纳米级材料与活的基质进行杂交的可能性，然而，纳米材料对生物物质的影响仍然存在重大疑问。在这项研究中，我们在存在过量磁铁矿纳米颗粒的情况下培养纤毛原生动物池塘栖息微生物，以推断该技术的潜在有益应用，并观察对生物体健康的任何有害影响。我们的研究结果表明，这种纳米颗粒能被细胞很好地耐受，观察到细胞消耗的纳米颗粒量超过其身体体积的5 - 12%：在磁铁矿纳米颗粒存在下培养不会改变细胞体积、游动速度、生长速率或峰值菌落密度，并且培养物可以在受纳米颗粒污染的培养基中持续存在数周。我们证明细胞摄取淀粉包被的磁铁矿纳米颗粒，这有助于它们被磁性固定，同时保持明显正常的纤毛动力学，从而证明纳米颗粒生物杂交是传统纤毛虫静止形式的可行替代方法。摄取的磁铁矿纳米颗粒沉积物似乎聚集，这表明(a)内化过程会使水生环境中的纳米材料悬浮液浓缩并因此可能使其解毒（即降低反应性），并且(b)是可编程纳米材料操纵和递送的候选生物体。
