The interactions of fullerene C60 and Benzo(α)pyrene influence their bioavailability and toxicity to zebrafish embryos

Abstract

This study aimed to assess the toxicological consequences related to the interaction of fullerene nanoparticles (C) and Benzo(α)pyrene (B(α)P) on zebrafish embryos, which were exposed to C and B(α)P alone and to C doped with B(α)P. The uptake of pollutants into their tissues and intra-cellular localization were investigated by immunofluorescence and electron microscopy. A set of biomarkers of genotoxicity and oxidative stress, as well as functional proteomics analysis were applied to assess the toxic effects due to C interaction with B(α)P. The carrier role of C for B(α)P was observed, however adsorption on C did not affect the accumulation and localization of B(α)P in the embryos. Instead, C doped with B(α)P resulted more prone to sedimentation and less bioavailable for the embryos compared to C alone. As for toxicity, our results suggested that C alone elicited oxidative stress in embryos and a down-regulation of proteins involved in energetic metabolism. The C + B(α)P induced cellular response mechanisms similar to B(α)P alone, but generating greater cellular damages in the exposed embryos.

Antagonistic Interactions between Benzo[a]pyrene and C₆₀ in Toxicological Response of Marine Mussels

“…As already observed in [72], mixture did not increase the formation of DNA strand breaks in the In our study, the antagonistic effect observed in the co-exposure treatment at the highest concentration may be caused by a reduction in ROS generation, or more effective scavenging of ROS by C60, when C60 and BaP are present together in close association, as previously described by [9,72].…”

“…The toxicity associated with C60 is controversial and largely unclear [6]. The ability of C60 to both generate and quench reactive oxygen species (ROS) has recently been recognised as a particularly important property in the interaction of fullerenes with biological systems [7], with many aquatic studies demonstrating that fullerenes are capable of eliciting toxicity via oxidative stress [8][9][10].…”

Antagonistic Interactions between Benzo[a]pyrene and Fullerene (C60) in Toxicological Response of Marine Mussels

“…While single exposure studies are more common, bivalve species have already been used as biological models in proteomics to assess the effects of complex mixtures [22,76,77]. However, proteomics analyses on combined exposure with carbon nanomaterials in aquatic organisms are still very scarce [9].…”

“…The toxicity associated with C 60 is controversial and largely unclear [6]. The ability of C 60 to both generate and quench reactive oxygen species (ROS) has recently been recognised as a particularly important property in the interaction of fullerenes with biological systems [7], with many aquatic studies demonstrating that fullerenes are capable of eliciting toxicity via oxidative stress [8,9,10]. Numerous studies have investigated the beneficial and toxicological effects of fullerenes [11,12,13,14,15,16,17].…”

Zebrafish as a Model Organism to Study Nanomaterial Toxicity

“…Multiwalled carbon nanotubes Embryo [130] Single wall carbon nanotubes Embryo [131] Graphene quantum dot Embryo [132] Carbon dots Embryo [133] Pristine graphene Embryo [134] Graphene oxide Larvae [135] Fullerene Embryo and adult [136,137] Polymer nanoparticles Chitosan Embryo [138] Hydroxy apatite Embryo [139] Poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) Life stages and adult [140] Anionic and cationic polyamidoamine (PAMAM) and poly (propylene imine) (PPI) Embryo [141] Bismuth-asparagine Embryo [142] Redox polymer Embryo [143] Iron chelator starch-deferoxamine Embryo [144] Nanocomposites Graphene oxide-titanium dioxide Embryo and larvae [145] Chitosan-zinc oxide Early stages of zebrafish [146] Starch-magnetite Adult [147] Titanium dioxide-multiwalled carbon nanotube Embryo [148] Gold-gadolinium doped-carbon quantum dot Embryo [149] Titanium dioxide-chondroitin-4-sulfate Embryo and life stages [150]…”