Living things are exposed every day to nanoparticles from various products and air pollution. After analyzing hundreds of exposures, researchers from the University of Tampere have revealed How Different Species Share Specific Epigenetic Reactions to Molecules.
They have now described the mechanisms by which cells and organisms adapt to long-term exposure to nanoscale materials.
Researchers from FHAIVE – Finnish Institute for the Development and Support of Integrated Methods, University of Tampere, have identified a new response mechanism specific to nanoparticle exposure that occurs in many species.
By analyzing a large collection of data on the molecular response to nanomaterials, PhD student Giusy del Giudice has uncovered an ancestral defense mechanism that explains how different species, from humans to simple organisms, adapt to time goes by.
The results of the research carried out by Dario Greco, professor of bioinformatics at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology and director of FHAIVE, were presented in the scientific paper Molecular Ancestral Responses in Nanomaterial Particulates, which was recently published in this journal and Nature Nanotechnology.
“We have shown for the first time that there is a specific response to nanoparticles, and it is related to their nano properties. This study sheds light on how different species react to particles in a similar way. It provides a solution to the “one chemical, one signature” problem, currently limiting the use of toxicogenomics in chemical safety research,” says Dario Greco.
Association of nanoparticles with immunity
The results of this study go beyond the field of toxicology. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need to activate vaccines and report clinical outcomes of viral infections. In other polluted areas, COVID-19 has had an even worse impact on the population. “Our results reveal an important link between understanding the basic defense mechanisms of organisms and their immune function,” says Greco.
“When it comes to drugs or viruses, we understand that any exposure or disease leaves our immune system, and that signal will affect how we respond to users in the the future. Now we have evidence that even the fine particles are our main defense,” says Giusy del Giudice, the first author of the scientific paper.
The negative effects of air pollution on respiratory function are known, and recently scientists at the Francis Crick Institute have shown that it is one of the causes of lung cancer. do not smoke. In both cases, COVID-19 and lung cancer, the effect of particles on the immune system contributed to these effects.
Del Giudice says, “the connection between the particles and the activation of the disease is the most important and can have a very important effect on the epidemic.” One step closer to planetary health
Another important thing learned from the COVID-19 epidemic is related to the concept of global health: all living things in the world are closely related, and the effect on one species will eventually spread to others. In this regard, the results of this study open new avenues for the development of mixed models that predict the effects of chemical exposures on multiple species simultaneously. “Our results support this by elucidating a basic defense mechanism common to many species in the tree of life,” says del Giudice.
Nanotechnology plays an important role in many fields, from biomedicine to energy and climate. Engineered nanomaterials are chemicals or materials whose size is only between 1 and 100 nanometers, or one-third the size of a human hair.
Currently, thousands of consumer products contain nanomaterials, making it necessary to test their possible effects on health and the environment. Because traditional toxicology relies on animal or in vitro experiments to evaluate phenotypic changes in response to exposure, it cannot continue with this technological development.
“We cannot test every new nanomaterial in every possible form in the world. We need new ways to reliably evaluate potential products as quickly as possible. “Scientific evidence like that presented in this study can help create new species that don’t require extensive animal testing,” Greco said.
Source: Tampere University.
