A new strategy to probe the genotoxicity of silver nanoparticles combined with cetylpyridine bromide

The environmental genotoxic behavior of silver nanoparticles (nanoAg) combined with the detergent cetylpyridine bromide (CPB) was examined in vitro. The experimental results showed that the genotoxicity of nanoAg itself is weak, but nanoAg shows obvious genotoxicity after combined with CPB. The combined materials have a strong coeffect on calf thymus DNA (ctDNA) at a concentration of 3.3 × 10−6 g mL−1 nanoAg and 6.0 × 10−6 mol L−1 CPB. After the addition of ctDNA to the nanoAg–CPB system, the particles are scattered and the diameter decreases, which indirectly reveal that nanoAg–CPB has genotoxicity.