Engineered Nanoparticles Associated Metabolomics

Abstract

Nanotechnology is of great economic importance due to rapid growth in industrial and household applications and their continuous release into environmental matrices has increased the concerns regarding its potential impact on human and environment. To evaluate the potential toxicity of nanoparticles (NPs), the impact on humans and ecosystems needs to be understood from mechanistic insight by metabolomics. The analytical methods and omics technologies are particularly well-suited to evaluate these two dimensions in environment and both in vitro and in vivo systems, respectively. In this paper, the currently most effective methods for sampling and detection are presented together for future standardization of protocols providing profiles of NPs and associated metabolomics. All these approaches are designed without compromising the reliability and quality of the analytical results for their application in understanding the metabolomics and chemistry of NPs in the environmental matrices. Among sampling and separation, the most usable for worldwide comparisons of environmental matrixes are size-exclusion chromatography for size-exclusion, hydrodynamic chromatography coupled to inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry for size fractionation of engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) in environmental samples, gel electrophoresis for the separation of biological macromolecules, flow field flow fractionation (FIFFF) is widely used to separate NPs from environmental samples. The analytical tools for NPs associated metabolomics reveal immense potential for effects assessment such as liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, and nuclear magnetic resonance which are the most cost-effective and time-effective techniques. The omics technologies evaluate the toxicity profile of NPs by studying insight into nanotoxicity by application of both liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance–based metabolomics approaches. Also the proteomics leads to the analysis of biological system/biomarkers perturbs due to NPs interactions by using bioassay indicative of biomarkers related to pathways such as glucose metabolism, energy cycles, methylation and glutathione synthesis, and glucuronidation pathway and polyamine synthesis.