Immunometabolism & Cancer Research Group, Institute of Life Science, Swansea University Medical School, Swansea, Wales SA2 8PP, U.K.
Human Immunology Research Group, Institute of Life Science, Swansea University Medical School, Swansea, Wales SA2 8PP, U.K.
Chem Res Toxicol. 2020 May 18;33(5):1061-1073. doi: 10.1021/acs.chemrestox.0c00051. Epub 2020 Apr 30.
Human exposure to engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) is inevitable due to the plethora of applications for which they are being manufactured and integrated within. ENMs demonstrate plentiful advantages in terms of industrial approaches as well as from a consumer perspective. However, despite such positives, doubts remain over the human health implications of ENM exposure. In light of the increased research focus upon the potential effects of ENM exposure to human health in recent decades, questions still remain regarding the safety of these highly advanced, precision-tuned physical entities. The risk of short-term, high-dose exposure to humans is considered relatively low, although this has formed the direction of the hazard-assessment community since the turn of the 21st century. However, the possibility of humans being exposed repeatedly over a long period of time to a low-dose of ENMs of varying physicochemical characteristics is of significant concern, and thus, industry, government, academic, and consumer agencies are only now beginning to consider this. Notably, when considering the human health implications of such low-dose, long-term, repeated exposure scenarios, the impact of ENMs upon the human immune system is of primary importance. However, there remains a real need to understand the impact of ENMs upon the human immune system, especially the innate immune system, at all stages of life, given exposure to nanosized particles begins before birth, that is, of the fetus. Therefore, the purpose of this perspective is to summarize what is currently known regarding ENM exposure of different components of the innate immune system and identify knowledge gaps that should be addressed if we are to fully deduce the impact of ENM exposure on innate immune function.
由于工程纳米材料（ENMs）被广泛制造和应用，人类不可避免地会接触到它们。ENMs 在工业方法和消费者角度都具有许多优势。然而，尽管存在这些积极因素，人们对 ENM 暴露对人类健康的影响仍存在疑虑。鉴于近几十年来人们对 ENM 暴露对人类健康的潜在影响的研究关注度不断增加，关于这些高度先进、精密调整的物理实体的安全性问题仍然存在疑问。尽管自 21 世纪初以来，危险评估界一直关注人类短期、高剂量暴露的风险相对较低，但人类长期、低剂量反复暴露的风险仍然存在。因此，工业界、政府、学术界和消费者机构现在才开始考虑这一点。值得注意的是，在考虑这种低剂量、长期、重复暴露情况下对人类健康的影响时，ENMs 对人类免疫系统的影响是首要关注的问题。然而，鉴于纳米颗粒的暴露从胎儿期就开始了，因此，在生命的各个阶段，真正需要了解 ENMs 对人类免疫系统，特别是先天免疫系统的影响。因此，本观点的目的是总结目前已知的关于先天免疫系统不同成分的 ENM 暴露情况，并确定如果我们要充分推断 ENM 暴露对先天免疫功能的影响，就需要解决的知识空白。
