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Final Progress Reports: University of California-Davis: Nanoscale Materials in the Environment and their Health Effects

Superfund Research Program

Nanoscale Materials in the Environment and their Health Effects

Project Leader: Ian M. Kennedy
Grant Number: P42ES004699
Funding Period: 2010-2015
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Final Progress Reports

Year:   2014 

Nano materials can appear in our water systems and may affect aquatic animals and plants. Kennedy and his research team exposed tilapia fish embryos to copper oxide nanoparticles and assessed their response. They found the embryos' response was sensitive to the salinity of their environment. Nano materials are often coated to improve their functionality and to minimize their toxicity. A common approach involves the use of oleic acid. The researchers found that a commonly reported coating can actually disintegrate during interaction with cells and lead to unexpected toxicity. The results indicated that care needs to be taken in the type of coating that is applied to nano materials. The researchers have a system for determining the impact of nano materials on the function of human cells such as the lung macrophage. The macrophage makes use of its motility to take up foreign materials within the lung. The researchers hypothesize that nano materials may compromise this function. To this end, they have developed a system using polymer micro-pillars on which the macrophages are cultured. Deflection of the pillars gives a direct measurement of the traction force that the macrophage can apply to its surroundings in order to move. The researchers are currently measuring the motility of macrophages with and without exposure to a variety of nano materials. An exposure system has been developed for animal studies looking at the toxicity of nano materials that are inhaled. Their system provides a well-controlled environment of metal oxide nanoparticles that are doped with a fluorescent lanthanide element to permit imaging within tissues. Studies have been carried out using neonatal, juvenile and adult rats. The researchers' very sensitive measurements of the amount of deposition of nano materials shows that the most vulnerable animals are the juvenile animals, in which the greatest amount of nano materials were deposited within the lung. This finding has significance for public health because juvenile humans typically will face the greatest exposure risk as they are most active outdoors, in some cases near roadways or other sources of nano materials. The researchers have examined the ability of airborne particles, and individual particle components, to make reactive oxygen species (ROS) such as HOOH and OH. This is important because the generation of ROS has been linked to the toxicity of airborne particles, which kill approximately 100,000 people in the U.S. each year. By combining their laboratory results of HOOH generation by individual redox-active metals and quinones with published concentrations of these species, the researchers have revealed that Cu accounts for nearly all of the HOOH generated by inhaled ambient particles. This suggests that copper plays a major role in the generation of oxidants by airborne particles and, possibly, in the toxicity that is associated with ambient particles.

A startup company, SonanuTech, Inc., was formed to commercialize the photonic crystal technology. The company currently has a Phase I SBIR grant from NSF to develop an instrument to detect bacteriophages that upset fermentation in the cheese industry. The company plans to include the entire bio-fermentation industry in its marketing plans, with an extension to biomedical applications for infectious disease and cancer detection down the road.

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