Probabilistic modelling of prospective environmental concentrations of gold nanoparticles from medical applications as a basis for risk assessment

Journal of Nanobiotechnology

Research

Richard Owen¹  Bernd Nowack²  Tian Yin Sun³  Konrad Hungerbuehler⁴  Indrani Mahapatra⁵  Julian R. A. Clark⁵  Jamie Lead⁶  Peter J. Dobson⁷ 

[1] Business School, University of Exeter, EX4 4PU, Exeter, UK;Empa–Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Technology and Society Laboratory, Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, 9014, St. Gallen, Switzerland;Empa–Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Technology and Society Laboratory, Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, 9014, St. Gallen, Switzerland;Safety and Environmental Technology Group, Institute for Chemical and Bioengineering, ETH-Hoenggerberg, 8093, Zurich, Switzerland;Safety and Environmental Technology Group, Institute for Chemical and Bioengineering, ETH-Hoenggerberg, 8093, Zurich, Switzerland;School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, B15 2TT, Birmingham, UK;School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, B15 2TT, Birmingham, UK;Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Center for Environmental Nanoscience and Risk, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, 29208, Columbia, SC, USA;The Queen’s College, OX1 4AW, Oxford, UK;Warwick Manufacturing Group, University of Warwick, CV4 7AL, Coventry, UK;

关键词: Gold nanoparticles;    Nanomedicine;    Probabilistic modelling;    Species sensitivity distribution;    PEC;    PNEC;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12951-015-0150-0

 received in 2015-10-01, accepted in 2015-11-18,  发布年份 2015

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe use of gold nanoparticles (Au-NP) based medical applications is rising due to their unique physical and chemical properties. Diagnostic devices based on Au-NP are already available in the market or are in clinical trials and Au-NP based therapeutics and theranostics (combined diagnostic and treatment modality) are in the research and development phase. Currently, no information on Au-NP consumption, material flows to and concentrations in the environment are available. Therefore, we estimated prospective maximal consumption of Au-NP from medical applications in the UK and US. We then modelled the Au-NP flows post-use and predicted their environmental concentrations. Furthermore, we assessed the environment risks of Au-NP by comparing the predicted environmental concentrations (PECs) with ecological threshold (PNEC) values.ResultsThe mean annual estimated consumption of Au-NP from medical applications is 540 kg for the UK and 2700 kg for the US. Among the modelled concentrations of Au-NP in environmental compartments, the mean annual PEC of Au-NP in sludge for both the UK and US was estimated at 124 and 145 μg kg−1, respectively. The mean PEC in surface water was estimated at 468 and 4.7 pg L−1, respectively for the UK and US. The NOEC value for the water compartment ranged from 0.12 up to 26,800 μg L−1, with most values in the range of 1000 μg L−1.ConclusionThe results using the current set of data indicate that the environmental risk from Au-NP used in nanomedicine in surface waters and from agricultural use of biosolids is minimal in the near future, especially because we have used a worst-case use assessment. More Au-NP toxicity studies are needed for the soil compartment.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Mahapatra et al. 2015