Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt.
Protein Research Department, Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Research Institute (GEBRI), City of Scientific Research and Technological Applications (SRTA-City), P.O. Box: 21934, New Borg El-Arab City, Alexandria, Egypt.
Sci Rep. 2022 Aug 16;12(1):13899. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-17712-z.
With the evolution of nanostructure materials, silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) emerged as the predominantly exploited nanomaterial in multifarious sectors due to their versatile properties. Along with the heightening applications of Ag-NPs, however, there is increasing concern over their indubitable toxicity towards the ecosystem, which indeed affects surrounding organisms and human health. In this study, we evaluated the detrimental effects of Ag-NPs in relation to Egyptian wild female beetles, Blaps polychresta, after injection with a single dose of Ag-NPs at different doses and monitoring for 30 days to determine the sublethal dose. Accordingly, the sublethal dose revealed the lowest negative influence was found at 0.03 mg/g body weight. The adverse impacts of Ag-NPs on the ovaries of female beetles were investigated by estimating the enzyme activities, DNA damage using a comet assay, and apoptosis by means of flow cytometry. Besides, the ultrastructural abnormalities were surveyed adopting transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results manifested comet cells of 7.67 ± 0.88% and 22.33 ± 0.51 for Ag-NPs treated and control groups, respectively. Similarly, the data from flow cytometry demonstrated a substantial reduction in viable cells associated with a significant rise in apoptotic cells for the Ag-NPs treated group in comparison with the control group. Moreover, significant disturbances in enzyme activities for the treated group were perceived correlated with evident diminutions in antioxidant enzymes. Remarkably, the ultrastructural investigation emphasized these findings, exposing considerable deformities of the ovaries in the Ag-NPs treated group compared with the control group. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report discussing the influence of Ag-NPs at the lowest dose on ovaries of B. polychresta. Collectively, our findings would significantly contribute to considering the critical effects of Ag-NPs at low levels, in addition to the potential use of B. polychresta as a good bio-indicator in ecotoxicological analyses.
随着纳米结构材料的发展，银纳米粒子（Ag-NPs）因其多功能特性而成为众多领域中主要开发的纳米材料。然而，随着 Ag-NPs 的应用日益广泛，人们越来越关注其对生态系统的不可避免的毒性，这确实会影响周围的生物和人类健康。在这项研究中，我们评估了 Ag-NPs 对埃及野生雌性甲虫（Blaps polychresta）的有害影响，方法是在不同剂量下注射单次剂量的 Ag-NPs，并监测 30 天以确定亚致死剂量。因此，发现最低负影响的亚致死剂量为 0.03mg/g 体重。通过估计卵巢酶活性、彗星试验评估 DNA 损伤和流式细胞术评估细胞凋亡，研究了 Ag-NPs 对雌性甲虫卵巢的不良影响。此外，还采用透射电子显微镜（TEM）观察了超微结构异常。结果显示，Ag-NPs 处理组和对照组的彗星细胞分别为 7.67±0.88%和 22.33±0.51%。同样，流式细胞术的数据表明，Ag-NPs 处理组与对照组相比，活细胞显著减少，凋亡细胞显著增加。此外，Ag-NPs 处理组的酶活性显著紊乱，与抗氧化酶明显减少相关。值得注意的是，超微结构研究强调了这些发现，与对照组相比，Ag-NPs 处理组的卵巢明显变形。据我们所知，这是第一篇讨论在最低剂量下 Ag-NPs 对 B. polychresta 卵巢影响的报告。总的来说，我们的研究结果将有助于考虑 Ag-NPs 在低水平下的关键影响，以及 B. polychresta 在生态毒理学分析中作为良好生物指示剂的潜在用途。
