Researchers have identified new response mechanisms specific to exposure to nanoparticles reveals the potential of nanocomputing, which are common to many species. By analyzing a large collection of data on the response of cells to nanomaterials, they revealed an ancestral epigenetic defense system that explains how different species, from humans to primates, adapt to the environment to reveal.
The project (Nanoparticles Reveals the Potential of Nanocomputing) is led by PhD researcher Giusy del Giudice and Professor Dario Greco at the Finnish Center for Development and Validation of Integrated Approaches (FHAIVE), University of Tampere, Finland, in collaboration with interdisciplinary teams from Finland, Ireland, Poland, UK . , Cyprus, South Africa, Greece and Estonia – including Professor Vladimir Lobaskin from the UCD School of Physics, University College Dublin, Ireland.
The article “Ancestral Molecular Responses in Nanomaterial Particles” was published in Nature Nanotechnology this month (May 2023).
The director of FHAIVE, Professor Greco, said: “We have demonstrated for the first time that there is a specific response to nanoparticles, and its connection to their nano-materials. This study sheds light on how different species recycle molecules in similar ways. It provides a solution to the “one chemical, one signature” problem, currently limiting the use of toxicogenomics in chemical safety research. »
Systems biology meets nanoinformatics
Associate Professor Vladimir Lobaskin, an expert in biological systems, said: “In this large collaborative project, led by the University of Tampere team and including the UCD School of Physics, it not only a common response to nanoparticles has been found in all plant species. . and invertebrates and humans, and often the characteristics of nanomaterials to trigger these responses.
He said: “Tens of thousands of new nanomaterials hit the consumer market every year. It is a huge task to analyze all of them for possible negative effects in order to protect the environment and human health. It can be damage to the lungs when we breathe dust, the release of toxic ions from dust particles, the production of reactive oxygen species, or the binding of cell membrane lipids by nanoparticles. In other words, it all starts with simple physical interactions on the surface of nanoparticles that are little known but important to biologists and toxicologists to understand what we have to fear when we are exposed to nanomaterials.
Over the past decade, OECD countries have adopted a toxicological assessment system based on the analysis of adverse effects and the relationship between organisms that cause disease or adverse effects and the people. Once the path of the negative effect is determined, one can trace the biological process back to the beginning – the molecular initiation event that triggered the cascade.
Attempts to analyze toxicological data in a statistical way in recent years did not identify the characteristics of nanomaterials for adverse effects. The problem is that the physical characteristics provided by the manufacturers, such as nanoparticle chemistry and size distribution, are too limited and not sufficient to make reasonable predictions about their biological activity.
The previous work, supported by a team from the UCD School of Physics, suggests a collection of advanced descriptors of nanomaterials, using mathematical techniques where necessary, to understand the interaction of nanoparticles and particles and particles. molecular initiation events. These advanced descriptors can provide missing pieces of information and include diffusion rates, atomic polarity, molecular bond strength, shape, surface area, hydrophobicity index, strength of amino acids or lipids – and any properties that have ability to destroy cells or normal physical activity.
Associate Professor Lobaskin and colleagues in the UCD Soft Matter Modeling Lab worked on the characterization of the material in silico and analyzed the details associated with the hazardous potential of nanoparticles.
He said: “In the research presented in the latest journal Nature Nanotechnology, we can see the connection between different factors related to health risks at the molecular level. This publication is the first demonstration of the potential nanoinformatics, a new field of research that extends the concepts of chemo informatics and bioinformatics, but it is also a great promise: the use of digital twins created in computers will allow us to research in the near future and promote new, even before they were created to make them safe and durable from the start.
Source: UCD Research and Innovation
