Great news! We have a manuscript that has just been accepted for peer-reviewed publication: “Assessment of the toxic potential of engineered metal oxide nanomaterials using an acellular model: citrated rat blood plasma.” The manuscript has been accepted only 8 days after submitting to the journal Toxicology Mechanisms and Methods, and with no revisions requested. We expect the online proofs to be available shortly. Update: The final version of the article is now available online.
Followers of our website will note that we have previously studied the toxicity of metal oxide nanomaterials (e.g. zinc oxide, cerium oxide) in benthic fish; most nanotoxicology studies involve the exposure of nanomaterials to something living, whether it be single cells or a multicellular organism. In our newest publication, we investigate the exposure of zinc oxide and cerium oxide nanospheres to a complex biological medium: citrated blood plasma, which does not contain living cells. Our aim is to uncover whether the oxidative stress and damage typically associated with nanotoxicity is a direct function of the nanomaterial-biomolecule interactions themselves, or whether it is an indirect effect of the cellular response to foreign nanomaterials.
This publication incorporates work from the honours research of Dieni Research Group alumnus Patrick Gormley, with additional significant contributions from Neal Callaghan. We are grateful for the research infrastructure, funds, and support provided by Dr. Tyson MacCormack.
Laboratory for Evaluation of Pharmacological Agents in Remediation of Disease (LEoPARD) 