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Nanotubes can damage DNA, UD researchers find
Study shows nanotubes can concentrate in stem cells and cause damage at the genetic level.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
DAYTON — University of Dayton researchers have found evidence of DNA damage and mutations in mice cells when exposed to carbon nanotubes — tiny synthetic structures being explored for a variety of medical uses, including delivering drugs and genes with unheard-of precision.
The study, published late last year by the American Chemical Society, is the first to demonstrate that carbon nanotubes can concentrate in stem cells and cause damage at the genetic level. Other studies, including those at UD, have found that some types of nanomaterials can be toxic at the cellular level.
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The study should send a cautionary note to researchers looking at medical applications for carbon nanotubes, whose microscopic hollow structure presents novel uses for pinpointing the delivery of cancer drugs and imaging dyes. "You don't want to introduce a disease when you're trying to cure another one," said Liming Dai, a materials engineering and chemistry professor at UD.
Yiling Hong, a UD biology professor who collaborated with Dai on the study, said the mice stem-cell model that UD has developed for testing the genetic toxicity of nanotubes can be applied to other nanomaterials. The next step is to test the toxicity of those materials in lab animals.
Dai said making carbon nanotubes safe for biomedical use may be as simple as changing the surface characteristics of the tiny structures.
Nanoparticles can be so small that 100,000 match the thickness of a human hair. With new tools, like the scanning tunneling electron microscope, individual nanotubes can be visualized with great precision and their surfaces modified to create entirely new materials with useful electrical and chemical properties.
Yet creating new particles with new properties may pose health and environmental problems that no one can begin to foresee, scientists warn. Last summer, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a 120-page white paper that said more study of nanotechnology's risks is needed, but stopped short of regulating the booming industry.
