Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have already been successfully implemented in various fields, and they are anticipated to have innovative applications in medical science. However, CNTs have asbestos-like properties, such as their nanoscale size and high aspect ratio (>100). Moreover, CNTs may persist in the body for a long time. These properties are thought to cause malignant mesothelioma and lung cancer. However, based on conventional toxicity assessment systems, the carcinogenicity of asbestos and CNTs is unclear. The reason for late countermeasures against asbestos is that reliable, long-term safety assessments have not yet been developed by toxicologists. Therefore, a new type of long-term safety assessment, different from the existing methods, is needed for carbon nanomaterials. Recently, we applied a proteomic approach to the safety assessment of carbon nanomaterials. In this review, we discuss the basic concept of our approach, the results, the problems, and the possibility of a long-term safety assessment for carbon nanomaterials using the toxicoproteomic approach.
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