Unraveling the neurotoxicity of titanium dioxide nanoparticles: focusing on molecular mechanisms

• Bin Song,
• Yanli Zhang,
• Jia Liu,
• Xiaoli Feng,
• Ting Zhou and
• Longquan Shao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 645–654, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.57

• and are widely used in many fields. Numerous in vivo studies, exposing experimental animals to these NPs through systematic administration, have suggested that TiO2 NPs can accumulate in the brain and induce brain dysfunction. Nevertheless, the exact mechanisms underlying the neurotoxicity of TiO2 NPs

• investigated comprehensively through studying every possible molecular mechanism. Keywords: autophagy; brain; DNA methylation; neurotoxicity; titanium dioxide nanoparticles; Introduction Titanium dioxide nanoparticles, smaller than 1 μm in at least one dimension, possess specific physico-chemical

• detected in the main organs of experimental animals [5][6] and in exhaled breath condensate of exposed workers [7]. This accumulation can in turn damage affected organs and induce dysfunction. The brain is of particular interest, as it is unable to regenerate from damage. Consequently, the neurotoxicity of

Surface coating affects behavior of metallic nanoparticles in a biological environment

• Darija Domazet Jurašin,
• Marija Ćurlin,
• Ivona Capjak,
• Tea Crnković,
• Marija Lovrić,
• Michal Babič,
• Daniel Horák,
• Ivana Vinković Vrček and
• Srećko Gajović

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 246–262, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.23

• Darija Domazet Jurasin Marija Curlin Ivona Capjak Tea Crnkovic Marija Lovric Michal Babic Daniel Horak Ivana Vinkovic Vrcek Srecko Gajovic Division of Physical Chemistry, Ruđer Bošković Institute, Bijenička cesta 54, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia School of Medicine, Croatian Institute for Brain Research

Nanoinformatics for environmental health and biomedicine

• Rong Liu and
• Yoram Cohen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2449–2451, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.253

• for brain cancer [13]. As an imported aspect of nanoinformatics, recent advances in data mining/machine learning of nano-data are also reported in this Thematic Series. In one study, the toxicity of ZnO nanoparticles to zebrafish (measured by mortality rate (%)) was correlated to two principal

Ultrastructural changes in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus induced by positively charged silver nanoparticles

• Dulce G. Romero-Urbina,
• Humberto H. Lara,
• J. Jesús Velázquez-Salazar,
• M. Josefina Arellano-Jiménez,
• Eduardo Larios,
• Anand Srinivasan,
• Jose L. Lopez-Ribot and
• Miguel José Yacamán

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2396–2405, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.246

• the size distribution histogram using Origin 2015. Culture preparation: The bacterial strains MSSA (UAMS1) and MRSA (TCH1516) were cultured at 37 °C for 24 h on selective plates (ChromAgar BD Biosciences). Stock cultures were stored at −80 °C in Brain Heart Infusion Agar or BHI (Difco) with 50

Analyzing collaboration networks and developmental patterns of nano-enabled drug delivery (NEDD) for brain cancer

• Ying Huang,
• Jing Ma,
• Alan L. Porter,
• Seokbeom Kwon and
• Donghua Zhu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1666–1676, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.169

• research come from a global compilation of research publication information on NEDD directed at brain cancer. We derive a family of indicators that address multiple facets of research collaboration and knowledge transfer patterns. Results show that: (1) international cooperation is increasing, but

• go well beyond journal impact factors. Results offer useful technical intelligence to help researchers identify potential collaborators and to help inform R&D management and science & innovation policy for such nanotechnologies. Keywords: bibliometrics; brain cancer; collaboration network; nano

• conjugates and so on [6][7][8]. Among these, the brain tumor-targeting drug delivery systems, which increase drug accumulation in the tumor region and reduce toxicity in the normal brain and peripheral tissue, are a promising new approach [9]. Collaboration fosters interactions between different actors

The eNanoMapper database for nanomaterial safety information

• Nina Jeliazkova,
• Charalampos Chomenidis,
• Philip Doganis,
• Bengt Fadeel,
• Roland Grafström,
• Barry Hardy,
• Janna Hastings,
• Markus Hegi,
• Vedrin Jeliazkov,
• Nikolay Kochev,
• Pekka Kohonen,
• Cristian R. Munteanu,
• Haralambos Sarimveis,
• Bart Smeets,
• Pantelis Sopasakis,
• Georgia Tsiliki,
• David Vorgrimmler and
• Egon Willighagen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1609–1634, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.165

• proposed to extend the list of endpoints for hazard identification to include cell uptake, cell viability, oxidative stress, inflammation, fibrosis, immunotoxicity, cardiovascular toxicity, ventilation rate, gill pathologies, mucus secretion and brain pathology. The EU guidance document lists the main

Influence of surface chemical properties on the toxicity of engineered zinc oxide nanoparticles to embryonic zebrafish

• Zitao Zhou,
• Jino Son,
• Bryan Harper,
• Zheng Zhou and
• Stacey Harper

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1568–1579, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.160

• (SP), notochord (N), yolk sac edema (Y), axis (A), eye (E), snout (Sn), jaw (J), otic (O), heart (H), brain (B), somite (So), pectoral fin (PF), caudal fin (CF), pigment (P), circulation (C), trunk (T), swim bladder (SB), and touch response (TR). Statistical analysis Due to the non-parametric nature

• . The 19 sub-lethal endpoints are developmental progression (DP), spontaneous movement (SP), notochord (N), yolk sac edema (Y), axis (A), eye (E), snout (Sn), jaw (J), otic (O), heart (H), brain (B), somite (So), pectoral fin (PF), caudal fin (CF), pigment (P), circulation (C), trunk (T), swim bladder

• (SB), and touch response (TR). Supporting Information File 28: Fisher’s exact test p-value. The 19 sub-lethal endpoints are developmental progression (DP), spontaneous movement (SP), notochord (N), yolk sac edema (Y), axis (A), eye (E), snout (Sn), jaw (J), otic (O), heart (H), brain (B), somite (So

Tattoo ink nanoparticles in skin tissue and fibroblasts

• Colin A. Grant,
• Peter C. Twigg,
• Richard Baker and
• Desmond J. Tobin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1183–1191, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.120

• accumulation of micrometre- and nanometre-sized silver particles following subcutaneous injection in rats, and found that silver nanoparticles were distributed throughout the main organs especially kidney, liver, spleen, brain and lungs [31]. By contrast, the micrometre-sized silver particles did not get into

Influence of gold, silver and gold–silver alloy nanoparticles on germ cell function and embryo development

• Ulrike Taylor,
• Daniela Tiedemann,
• Christoph Rehbock,
• Wilfried A. Kues,
• Stephan Barcikowski and
• Detlef Rath

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 651–664, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.66

• gold and silver nanoparticles seems to be the liver followed by spleen and kidney [34][35]. But particles have also been localized in other organs including brain and testis, which represent sites particularly protected by the blood–brain and the blood–testis barrier [22][28][31][32][36][37]. An

Silica micro/nanospheres for theranostics: from bimodal MRI and fluorescent imaging probes to cancer therapy

• Shanka Walia and
• Amitabha Acharya

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 546–558, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.57

• nanocomposites which in turn confirmed the low cell toxicity level of the prepared nanocomposites. The biodistribution studies of such nanocomposites in mice showed that these were mainly located in lung, liver and spleen without any trace in the brain tissues. These results suggested that the prepared

• nanocomposites could not get through the blood brain barrier. The TEM and histopathological analysis of the liver tissues suggested these nanocomposites were mainly expelled out from the mice body possibly by liver secretion. In a similar way, Guo et al. [47] reported the synthesis of hybrid nanostructures of

• NPs. The best results were found for FITC-labeled γ-Fe2O3–SiO2-AP-CMCS NPs which showed a cell labeling of about 64%. Further these hybrid nanocomposites were injected into a rat brain to evaluate their applicability for MR imaging in vivo. The results suggested that the cell implant was visible as

Filling of carbon nanotubes and nanofibres

• Reece D. Gately and
• Marc in het Panhuis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 508–516, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.53

• . The same article also discussed the potential use of SWCNTs for the treatment of central nervous system disorders due to their ability to pass through blood–brain barriers [50]. In this article, selected avenues for the filling of carbon nanotubes and nanofibres as well as applications of the filled

• , drug release, VGCNFs have not yet been evaluated. Whilst they have not demonstrated the same nanoscale interactions as CNTs (such as crossing the blood–brain barrier, which is still under investigation), they may have other applications on the larger scale and allow for higher drug storage capacity

Correction: Carbon-based smart nanomaterials in biomedicine and neuroengineering

• Antonina M. Monaco and
• Michele Giugliano

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 499–499, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.51

• Antonina M. Monaco Michele Giugliano Theoretical Neurobiology and Neuroengineering Lab, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, B-2610 Wilrijk, Belgium Brain Mind Institute, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, CH-1015, Switzerland Department of

• should be: Acknowledgements We are grateful to Drs. C. Bittencourt, M. Prato, L. Ballerini, and M. Nesládek for discussions. We are also grateful to Drs. Henry Markram, Sébastien Lasserre, and the Blue Brain Project team at the EPFL for contributing the graphical abstract. Financial support from the

Overview about the localization of nanoparticles in tissue and cellular context by different imaging techniques

• Anja Ostrowski,
• Daniel Nordmeyer,
• Alexander Boreham,
• Cornelia Holzhausen,
• Lars Mundhenk,
• Christina Graf,
• Martina C. Meinke,
• Annika Vogt,
• Sabrina Hadam,
• Jürgen Lademann,
• Eckart Rühl,
• Ulrike Alexiev and
• Achim D. Gruber

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 263–280, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.25

• deposits in HE-stained sections of glioblastomas (Figure 1a), a common brain tumor with high clinical relevance [45]. Such particles have similarly been visualized after targeting prostate cancer cells in humans [46]. Iron oxide nanoparticles have been introduced as diagnostic tool or for the treatment of

Release behaviour and toxicity evaluation of levodopa from carboxylated single-walled carbon nanotubes

• Julia M. Tan,
• Jhi Biau Foo,
• Sharida Fakurazi and
• Mohd Zobir Hussein

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 243–253, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.23

• person diagnosed with PD shows typical motor symptoms such as resting tremor, spasticity, unstable posture, walking difficulty, dementia, slowness of body movements (bradykinesia) and involuntary movements (dyskinesia). This is due to depletion of dopamine (a catecholamine neurotransmitter) in the brain

• , due to its ability to cross the blood–brain barrier. However, responsive patients treated long term with LD therapy may experience a decrease in the duration of responsiveness to the treatment and side effects in motor fluctuation (dyskinesia) may result [13]. Moreover, once LD is administered orally

• into the body, the drug is immediately metabolized and only a small amount of drug reaches the central nervous system. To prevent LD from being rapidly metabolized before it reaches the brain, carbidopa, an inhibitor of dopamine decarboxylase, is commonly used in combination with LD to enhance the

Caveolin-1 and CDC42 mediated endocytosis of silica-coated iron oxide nanoparticles in HeLa cells

• Nils Bohmer and
• Andreas Jordan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 167–176, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.16

• development of new therapies for numerous diseases. For example iron oxide nanoparticles are in clinical use already in the thermotherapy of brain cancer. Although it has been shown, that tumor cells take up these particles in vitro, little is known about the internalization routes. Understanding of the

Functionalization of α-synuclein fibrils

• Simona Povilonienė,
• Vida Časaitė,
• Virginijus Bukauskas,
• Arūnas Šetkus,
• Juozas Staniulis and
• Rolandas Meškys

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 124–133, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.12

• and non-neuronal cell lines, brain tissue and living human cells, and analyzed under non-denaturing conditions [49]. The purified protein was used to study the modification and fibrillization of α-SynC141. According to the literature, one of the main factors which induces fibrillization is low pH [50

Sequence-dependent electrical response of ssDNA-decorated carbon nanotube, field-effect transistors to dopamine

• Hari Krishna Salila Vijayalal Mohan,
• Jianing An and
• Lianxi Zheng

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2113–2121, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.220

• sensors [1][2][3]. Of the numerous biomolecules, detection of dopamine (DA) is critical because of its high clinical importance in various brain functions such as learning, memory formation, message transfer in the central nervous system and understanding the pathological processes of Parkinson’s disease

PVP-coated, negatively charged silver nanoparticles: A multi-center study of their physicochemical characteristics, cell culture and in vivo experiments

• Sebastian Ahlberg,
• Alexandra Antonopulos,
• Jörg Diendorf,
• Ralf Dringen,
• Matthias Epple,
• Rebekka Flöck,
• Wolfgang Goedecke,
• Christina Graf,
• Nadine Haberl,
• Jens Helmlinger,
• Fabian Herzog,
• Frederike Heuer,
• Stephanie Hirn,
• Christian Johannes,
• Stefanie Kittler,
• Manfred Köller,
• Katrin Korn,
• Wolfgang G. Kreyling,
• Fritz Krombach,
• Jürgen Lademann,
• Kateryna Loza,
• Eva M. Luther,
• Marcelina Malissek,
• Martina C. Meinke,
• Daniel Nordmeyer,
• Anne Pailliart,
• Jörg Raabe,
• Fiorenza Rancan,
• Barbara Rothen-Rutishauser,
• Eckart Rühl,
• Carsten Schleh,
• Andreas Seibel,
• Christina Sengstock,
• Lennart Treuel,
• Annika Vogt,
• Katrin Weber and
• Reinhard Zellner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1944–1965, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.205

• brain astrocytes are shown to be fairly tolerant toward silver nanoparticles, silver nanoparticles induce the formation of DNA double-strand-breaks (DSB) and lead to chromosomal aberrations and sister-chromatid exchanges in Chinese hamster fibroblast cell lines (CHO9, K1, V79B). An exposure of rats to

• and/or intracellular dissolution of silver nanoparticles to silver ions. Silver nanoparticles and brain cells (astrocytes) Silver nanoparticles have been reported to damage the blood–brain barrier, to enter the brain and to cause neurotoxicity [96][97][98]. In addition, once nanoparticles have entered

• the brain, they are not efficiently cleared from the brain, in contrast to other organs, even during a long recovery period [99]. After crossing the blood–brain barrier into the brain, silver nanoparticles will immediately encounter astrocytes as these cells almost completely cover the brain

Carbon-based smart nanomaterials in biomedicine and neuroengineering

• Antonina M. Monaco and
• Michele Giugliano

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1849–1863, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.196

• Antonina M. Monaco Michele Giugliano Theoretical Neurobiology and Neuroengineering Lab, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, B-2610 Wilrijk, Belgium Brain Mind Institute, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, CH-1015, Switzerland Department of

• damaged brain functions is at the forefront of interdisciplinary research in materials science. Bioactive nanoparticles for drug delivery, substrates for nerve regeneration and active guidance, as well as supramolecular architectures mimicking the extracellular environment to reduce inflammatory responses

• in brain implants, are within reach thanks to the advancements in nanotechnology. In particular, carbon-based nanostructured materials, such as graphene, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and nanodiamonds (NDs), have demonstrated to be highly promising materials for designing and fabricating nanoelectrodes and

In vitro and in vivo interactions of selected nanoparticles with rodent serum proteins and their consequences in biokinetics

• Wolfgang G. Kreyling,
• Stefanie Fertsch-Gapp,
• Martin Schäffler,
• Blair D. Johnston,
• Nadine Haberl,
• Christian Pfeiffer,
• Jörg Diendorf,
• Carsten Schleh,
• Stephanie Hirn,
• Manuela Semmler-Behnke,
• Matthias Epple and
• Wolfgang J. Parak

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1699–1711, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.180

• the brain increased even 100-fold while the retention of apolipoprotein-E–AuNP conjugates in the brain was still 10-fold when compared to citrate-stabilized AuNP of the same size. Similarly, retention of both protein–AuNP conjugates was also increased 10-fold in the remaining carcass consisting of

The cell-type specific uptake of polymer-coated or micelle-embedded QDs and SPIOs does not provoke an acute pro-inflammatory response in the liver

• Markus Heine,
• Alexander Bartelt,
• Oliver T. Bruns,
• Denise Bargheer,
• Artur Giemsa,
• Barbara Freund,
• Ludger Scheja,
• Christian Waurisch,
• Alexander Eychmüller,
• Rudolph Reimer,
• Horst Weller,
• Peter Nielsen and
• Joerg Heeren

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1432–1440, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.155

• ]. The F4/80 (encoded by Emr1) molecule is solely expressed on the surface of macrophages and serves as a marker for mature macrophage tissues, including Kupffer cells in liver, splenic red pulp macrophages or brain microglia [36]. Two days after clodronate treatment, Emr1 expression was undetectable

Influence of the PDMS substrate stiffness on the adhesion of Acanthamoeba castellanii

• Sören B. Gutekunst,
• Carsten Grabosch,
• Alexander Kovalev,
• Stanislav N. Gorb and
• Christine Selhuber-Unkel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1393–1398, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.152

• in the human body are the eye and the brain, i.e., very soft environments. Thus, our study provides first hints towards the relevance of mechanical aspects for the pathogenicity of eukaryotic parasites. Keywords: acanthamoeba; cell adhesion; elastic substrates; mechanosensing; silicones

• adhere to comparably soft microenvironments in the brain and in the eye. Interestingly, there is no significant difference in the morphology of A. castellanii between PDMS substrates and the positive control substrate. This shows that A. castellanii trophozoites can adhere very well to PDMS without the

• soft substrates, as their main human infection targets, eye and brain, are very soft, with the brain having Young’s moduli of about 1–10 kPa and less [41]. However, the influence of the substrate stiffness on the adhesion of A. castellanii that we observe in our study is not as pronounced as for

Molecular biology approaches in bioadhesion research

• Marcelo Rodrigues,
• Birgit Lengerer,
• Thomas Ostermann and
• Peter Ladurner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 983–993, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.112

• complexity of the transcriptome when expressed genes of, e.g., the reproductive organs or the brain are not included. Second, the bioinformatic assembly of such a transcriptome will be facilitated. Third, the costs can be reduced since a higher coverage of bases, i.e., the frequency of how often a base of

Manipulation of isolated brain nerve terminals by an external magnetic field using D-mannose-coated γ-Fe₂O₃ nano-sized particles and assessment of their effects on glutamate transport

• Tatiana Borisova,
• Natalia Krisanova,
• Arsenii Borуsov,
• Roman Sivko,
• Ludmila Ostapchenko,
• Michal Babic and
• Daniel Horak

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 778–788, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.90

• of Kyiv, 64 Volodymyrska Str, Kiev, Ukraine The Department of Polymer Particles, Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry AS CR, Heyrovsky Sq. 2, 162 06 Prague 6, Czech Republic 10.3762/bjnano.5.90 Abstract The manipulation of brain nerve terminals by an external magnetic field promises breakthroughs

• characteristics of the glutamatergic neurotransmission were analysed. Using radiolabeled L-[14C]glutamate, it was shown that D-mannose-coated γ-Fe2O3 nanoparticles did not affect high-affinity Na+-dependent uptake, tonic release and the extracellular level of L-[14C]glutamate in isolated rat brain nerve terminals

• nanoparticles (250 µg/mL) moved to an area, in which the magnet (250 mT, gradient 5.5 Т/m) was applied compared to 33.5 ± 3.0% of the control and 48.6 ± 3.0% of samples that were treated with uncoated nanoparticles. Therefore, isolated brain nerve terminals can be easily manipulated by an external magnetic

Grain boundaries and coincidence site lattices in the corneal nanonipple structure of the Mourning Cloak butterfly

• Ken C. Lee and
• Uwe Erb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 292–299, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.32

• and retinula cells. The signals detected by thousands of ommatidia are processed neurologically in the brain to form a complete image. The corneal lens incorporates chitin, a long chained semicrystalline natural polysaccharide with a refractive index of about 1.52. It is well known that the outer