Cytotoxicity-Related Bioeffects Induced by Nanoparticles: The Role of Surface Chemistry

Hainan Sun; Cuijuan Jiang; Ling Wu; Xue Bai; Shumei Zhai

doi:10.3389/fbioe.2019.00414

Cytotoxicity-Related Bioeffects Induced by Nanoparticles: The Role of Surface Chemistry

Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2019 Dec 12:7:414. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2019.00414. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Hainan Sun^{1

2}, Cuijuan Jiang³, Ling Wu¹, Xue Bai¹, Shumei Zhai¹

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Colloid and Interface Chemistry of the Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan, China.
² Shandong Vocational College of Light Industry, Zibo, China.
³ School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Qingdao, China.

Abstract

Nanoparticles (NPs) are widely used in a variety of fields, including those related to consumer products, architecture, energy, and biomedicine. Once they enter the human body, NPs contact proteins in the blood and interact with cells in organs, which may induce cytotoxicity. Among the various factors of NP surface chemistry, surface charges, hydrophobicity levels and combinatorial decorations are found to play key roles inregulating typical cytotoxicity-related bioeffects, including protein binding, cellular uptake, oxidative stress, autophagy, inflammation, and apoptosis. In this review, we summarize the recent progress made in directing the levels and molecular pathways of these cytotoxicity-related effects by the purposeful design of NP surface charge, hydrophobicity, and combinatorial decorations.

Keywords: PEG; charge; cytotoxicity; hydrophobicity; nanoparticles; surface chemistry.

Publication types

Review