Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles at Predicted Environmentally Relevant Concentrations Cause Impairments in GABAergic Motor Neurons of Nematode Caenorhabditis elegans

Abstract

Available safety evaluations regarding mesoporous silica nanoparticles (mSiNPs) are based on the assumption of a relatively high exposure concentration, which makes the findings less valuable in a realistic environment. In this study, we employed Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) as a model to assess the neuronal damage caused by mSiNPs at the predicted environmentally relevant concentrations. After nematodes were acute and prolonged exposed to mSiNPs at concentrations over 300 μg/L, locomotion degeneration, shrinking behavior, and abnormal foraging behavior were observed, which were associated with the deficits in the development of GABAergic neurons, including D-type and RME motor neurons. Furthermore, the oxidative stress evidenced by excessive ROS generation might contribute to the mechanism of mSiNPs damaging neurons. Although the neurotoxicity of mSiNPs was weaker than (nonmesoporous) SiNPs, it is still necessary for researchers to pay attention to the adverse effects caused by mSiNPs in the environmental animals, especially with the rapid increase in mSiNPs application. Considering the conserved property of GABAergic neurons during evolution, these findings will shed light on our understanding of the potential eco-risks of NPs to the nervous system of other animal models.

Biological silicon nanoparticles maximize the efficiency of nematicides against biotic stress induced by Meloidogyne incognita in eggplant

“…SiNPs induced the premature aging phenotype of C. elegans by accumulating insoluble proteins and amyloid-like proteins and reducing pharyngeal pumping ( Scharf et al, 2013 , Scharf et al, 2016 ). This toxicity mechanism is also supported by Liang et al (2020) , who demonstrated that the high exposure concentration of mesoporous silica nanoparticles induced neurotoxicity in C. elegans nematodes. The toxicity of nanoparticles is not a species-specific ( Hamed et al 2019 ); hence, these findings on C. elegans may contribute to explain our results on M. incognita .…”

A Deep Learning Analysis Reveals Nitrogen-Doped Graphene Quantum Dots Damage Neurons of Nematode Caenorhabditis elegans

“…This organism has been reported to be used in toxicological studies of different nanomateirals, including carbon-based nanoparticles and quantum dots [14,16]. Meanwhile, the number of applications of C. elegans in assessing nanomaterials in the nervous system, especially adverse morphological changes of neurons, is increasing [17][18][19][20]. Therefore, in this study, the neurotoxicity of N-GQDs was assessed in this animal model and we focused on the adverse effects of N-GQDs in different types of neurons.…”