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Nano-bio interactions: the implication of size-dependent biological effects of nanomaterials

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Abstract

Due to their many advantageous properties, nanomaterials (NMs) have been utilized in diverse consumer goods, industrial products, and for therapeutic purposes. This situation leads to a constant risk of exposure and uptake by the human body, which are highly dependent on nanomaterial size. Consequently, an improved understanding of the interactions between different sizes of nanomaterials and biological systems is needed to design safer and more clinically relevant nano systems. We discuss the sizedependent effects of nanomaterials in living organisms. Upon entry into biological systems, nanomaterials can translocate biological barriers, distribute to various tissues and elicit different toxic effects on organs, based on their size and location. The association of nanomaterial size with physiological structures within organs determines the site of accumulation of nanoparticles. In general, nanomaterials smaller than 20 nm tend to accumulate in the kidney while nanomaterials between 20 and 100 nm preferentially deposit in the liver. After accumulating in organs, nanomaterials can induce inflammation, damage structural integrity and ultimately result in organ dysfunction, which helps better understand the size-dependent dynamic processes and toxicity of nanomaterials in organisms. The enhanced permeability and retention effect of nanomaterials and the utility of this phenomenon in tumor therapy are also highlighted.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2016YFA0201600 and 2016YFE0133100), the Program for International S&T Cooperation Projects of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2018YFE0117200), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31800844 and 51861145302), the Science Fund for Creative Research Groups of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (11621505), the Major Research Program of Guangdong province (2019B090917011), the CAS Key Research Program for Frontier Sciences (QYZDJ-SSW-SLH022), the Austrian-Chinese Cooperative RTD Project (GJHZ201949, FFG and CAS) and the CAS interdisciplinary innovation team.

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  1. Contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. CAS Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety & CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, 100190, China

    Xiaoyu Wang, Xuejing Cui, Yuliang Zhao & Chunying Chen

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Xiaoyu Wang, Yuliang Zhao & Chunying Chen

  3. GBA Research Innovation Institute for Nanotechnology, Guangdong, 510700, China

    Yuliang Zhao & Chunying Chen

Authors
  1. Xiaoyu Wang
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  2. Xuejing Cui
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  3. Yuliang Zhao
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  4. Chunying Chen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chunying Chen.

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The author(s) declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Wang, X., Cui, X., Zhao, Y. et al. Nano-bio interactions: the implication of size-dependent biological effects of nanomaterials. Sci. China Life Sci. 63, 1168–1182 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11427-020-1725-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11427-020-1725-0

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