Research Article
Poonam Takhar and Sheefali Mah
Abstract
Nanotechnology is the production of materials at atomic and molecular level and is expected to open some new avenues to fight and prevent diseases. It leads to improvement in biology, biotechnology, medicine and healthcare by uncovering the structure and function of biosystems at the nanoscale. The size of nanomaterials is similar to that of the most biological molecules and structures; therefore, nanomaterials can be useful for both in vivo and in vitro biomedical research and applications. Due to the expected growth in this field and new materials being employed, there is a call for safety and exposure risks. Hence, for improved characterization and reliable toxicity assessments, toxicological studies of nanosystems are growing at exponential rates annually. For these reasons, screening assays are needed to assess the chemical and physical properties of nanomaterials. Lacking the proper interactions of nanostructures with the biological systems, it is unclear whether the exposure could produce harmful biological responses. Deploying these materials in vivo has even more challenges. So, in vitro methods are commonly used for toxicity assessment of nanoparticles. Nanoparticle risk assessment can be done with existing cytotoxicity methods, or with the development of new test systems with new standards for a general in vitro toxicity testing of nanoparticles. An altogether different approach is required for nanoparticle characterization and for bioassays, in order to validate their properties in physiology. The present review focuses on the various in vitro methods of nanotoxicity assessment and the advantages offered by them. The article also sheds some light on the applications of these methods.