Institute of Soil and Water Resource and Environmental Science, College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, People's Republic of China.
State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, PR China.
Environ Pollut. 2021 Feb 15;271:116335. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2020.116335. Epub 2020 Dec 22.
The surface modifications of nanoparticles (NPs), are well-recognized parameters that affect the toxicity, while there has no study on toxicity of AlO NPs with different surface modification. Therefore, for the first time, this study pays attention to evaluating the toxicity and potential mechanism of pristine AlO NPs (p-AlO), hydrophilic (w-AlO) and lipophilic (o-AlO) modifications of AlO NPs both in vitro and in vivo. Applied concentrations of 10, 20, 40, 80,100 and 200 μg/mL for 24 h exposure on Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans), while 100 μg/mL of AlO NPs significantly decreased the survival rate. Using multiple toxicological endpoints, we found that o-AlO NPs (100 μg/mL) could induce more severe toxicity than p-AlO and w-AlO NPs. After uptake by C. elegans, o-AlO NPs increased the intestinal permeability, easily swallow and further destroy the intestinal membrane cells. Besides, cytotoxicity evaluation revealed that o-AlO NPs (100 μg/mL) are more toxic than p-AlO and w-AlO. Once inside the cell, o-AlO NPs could attack mitochondria and induce the over-production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which destroy the intracellular redox balance and lead to apoptosis. Furthermore, the transcriptome sequencing and RT-qPCR data also demonstrated that the toxicity of o-AlO NPs is highly related to the damage of cell membrane and the imbalance of intracellular redox. Generally, our study has offered a comprehensive sight to the adverse effects of different surface modifications of AlO NPs on environmental organisms and the possible underlying mechanisms.
纳米颗粒 (NPs) 的表面修饰是影响毒性的公认参数，而对于不同表面修饰的 AlO NPs 的毒性还没有研究。因此，本研究首次关注评估原始 AlO NPs (p-AlO)、亲水性 (w-AlO) 和疏水性 (o-AlO) 修饰的 AlO NPs 的体外和体内毒性及其潜在机制。将浓度为 10、20、40、80、100 和 200μg/mL 的 NPs 暴露于秀丽隐杆线虫 (C. elegans) 24 小时，发现 o-AlO NPs (100μg/mL) 比 p-AlO 和 w-AlO NPs 能引起更严重的毒性。使用多种毒理学终点，我们发现 o-AlO NPs (100μg/mL) 比 p-AlO 和 w-AlO NPs 能引起更严重的毒性。o-AlO NPs 被 C. elegans 摄取后，增加了肠道通透性，容易被吞噬，并进一步破坏肠道膜细胞。此外，细胞毒性评估表明 o-AlO NPs (100μg/mL) 比 p-AlO 和 w-AlO NPs 更具毒性。一旦进入细胞，o-AlO NPs 就会攻击线粒体并诱导活性氧 (ROS) 的过度产生，破坏细胞内的氧化还原平衡，导致细胞凋亡。此外，转录组测序和 RT-qPCR 数据也表明，o-AlO NPs 的毒性与其细胞膜的损伤和细胞内氧化还原平衡的失衡密切相关。总的来说，本研究为不同表面修饰的 AlO NPs 对环境生物的不良影响及其潜在机制提供了全面的认识。
