Progress on the toxicity of quantum dots to model organism‐zebrafish

Abstract

In vivo toxicological studies are currently necessary to analyze the probable dangers of quantum dots (QDs) to the environment and human safety, due to the fast expansion of QDs in a range of applications. Because of its high fecundity, cost-effectiveness, well-defined developmental phases, and optical transparency, zebrafish has long been considered the "gold standard" for biosafety assessment of chemical substances and pollutants. In this review, the advantages of using zebrafish in QD toxicity assessment were explored. Then, the target organ toxicities such as developmental toxicity, immunotoxicity, cardiovascular toxicity, neurotoxicity, and hepatotoxicity were summarized. The hazardous effects of different QDs, including cadmium-containing QDs like CdTe, CdSe, and CdSe/ZnS, as well as cadmium-free QDs like graphene QDs (GQDs), graphene oxide QDs (GOQDs), and others, were emphasized and described in detail, as well as the underlying mechanisms of QDs generating these effects.Furthermore, general physicochemical parameters determining QD-induced toxicity in zebrafish were introduced, such as chemical composition and surface coating/ modification. The limitations and special concerns of using zebrafish in QD toxicity studies were also mentioned. Finally, we predicted that the utilization of high-throughput screening assays and omics, such as transcriptome sequencing, proteomics, and metabolomics will be popular topic in nanotoxicology.cadmium-containing quantum dots, cadmium-free quantum dots, nanotoxicity, quantum dots, zebrafish model | INTRODUCTIONQuantum dots (QDs) are a type of semiconductor nanoparticle (typically 1-10 nm in diameter) that exhibit a number of features, including size effect, specific surface effect, and macroscopic quantum tunneling effect (Alivisatos, 1996). Group II-VI elements (e.g., CdTe, CdSe, CdS, ZnS, ZnSe, or ZnTe), group III-V elements (e.g., InP or InAs), group I-III-VI2 elements (e.g., CuInS 2 or AgInS 2 ), and group IV-VI elements (e.g., PbSe, PbS, or PbS) are common chemical components (Xu et al., 2016). As fluorescent nanomaterials, several varieties of QDs with a range of unique features are generated and widely used. Photonic applications such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs), organic LEDs (OLEDs), and solar cells have long used QDs (Choi et al., 2013;Steckel et al., 2006;Yuan et al., 2018). The use of QDs in biomedicine has sparked a lot of attention in recent years. QDs have been employed in a variety of biomedical applications, including cell markers and biological imaging (Singh et al., 2019;Wagner et al., 2019). QDs have a variety of benefits over traditional molecular dyes. Organic molecules degrade with time, whereas inorganic crystallites can withstand several excitations and light emissions. Long-term stability allows researchers to examine cells and tissues over long periods while maintaining the capacity to alter the interface quickly (Yang et al., 2019).Another advantage of QDs is that they are rich in colors. Because of the complexity of biological systems, it ...

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