Right or Left: The Role of Nanoparticles in Pulmonary Diseases

International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Xuefei Lu²  Tao Zhu¹  Chunying Chen²  Ying Liu² 

[1] Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale and School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230027, Anhui, China; E-Mail:;CAS Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology of China, Beijing 100190, China; E-Mails:

关键词: nanoparticle;    pulmonary pathobiological processes;    lung disease;    therapy;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijms151017577

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Due to the rapid development of the nanotechnology industry in the last decade, nanoparticles (NPs) are omnipresent in our everyday life today. Many nanomaterials have been engineered for medical purposes. These purposes include therapy for pulmonary diseases. On other hand, people are endeavoring to develop nanomaterials for improvement or replacement of traditional therapies. On the other hand, nanoparticles, as foreign material in human bodies, are reported to have potential adverse effects on the lung, including oxidase stress, inflammation, fibrosis and genotoxicity. Further, these damages could induce pulmonary diseases and even injuries in other tissues. It seems that nanoparticles may exert two-sided effects. Toxic effects of nanomaterials should be considered when their use is developed for therapies. Hence this review will attempt to summarize the two-side roles of nanoparticles in both therapies for pulmonary diseases and initiation of lung diseases and even secondary diseases caused by lung injuries. Determinants of these effects such as physicochemical properties of nanoparticles will also be discussed.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.