Toxicity of silver nanoparticles in biological systems: Does the complexity of biological systems matter?

•Silver nanoparticles toxicity affects all kind of cells, regardless of its level of complexity.•All biological systems tested are inhibited at similar Silver nanoparticles concentrations.•AgNPs effective inhibitory concentration range around 101 μg/mL.•This study covers different kind of cells from bacteria to eukaryotes, and even viruses.

Currently, nanomaterials are more frequently in our daily life, specifically in biomedicine, electronics, food, textiles and catalysis just to name a few. Although nanomaterials provide many benefits, recently their toxicity profiles have begun to be explored. In this work, the toxic effects of silver nanoparticles (35 nm-average diameter and Polyvinyl-Pyrrolidone-coated) on biological systems of different levels of complexity was assessed in a comprehensive and comparatively way, through a variety of viability and toxicological assays. The studied organisms included viruses, bacteria, microalgae, fungi, animal and human cells (including cancer cell lines). It was found that biological systems of different taxonomical groups are inhibited at concentrations of silver nanoparticles within the same order of magnitude. Thus, the toxicity of nanomaterials on biological/living systems, constrained by their complexity, e.g. taxonomic groups, resulted contrary to the expected. The fact that cells and virus are inhibited with a concentration of silver nanoparticles within the same order of magnitude could be explained considering that silver nanoparticles affects very primitive cellular mechanisms by interacting with fundamental structures for cells and virus alike.

Graphical abstractThis manuscript describes that biological systems of different taxonomical groups are inhibited at concentrations of silver nanoparticles within the same order of magnitude.The results derived from this work reveal the toxicity of nanomaterials on biological/living systems, constrained by their complexity, e.g. taxonomic groups, resulted contrary to the expected.Download high-res image (106KB)Download full-size image