This week in Nano (Week 43 October 19th-25th)

A study entitled 'Anthropogenic Carbon Nanotubes Found in the Airways of Parisian Children' hit the headlines this week after it was published via EBioMedicine

Here are some of the headlines:

• Are cars nanotube factories on wheels?
• Carbon nanotubes found in children’s lungs for the first time
• Are cars nanotube factories on wheels
• Carbon nanotubes found in human lungs for first time.
• Carbon nanotubes in cars finds their way to lungs of children
• Researchers detect carbon nanotubes in the lungs of French children

The article can be found here.  What does the paper actually report?

1. The study looked at bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) obtained from 64 asthmatic children living in Paris who underwent a  bronchoalveolar lavage treatment. During such a treatment sterile saline fluid is squirted into the lungs and then this fluid  from bronchioles and lung alveoli are removed for diagnosis. Healthy patients where not considered or this study due to ethical reasons - a bronchoaveolar lavage is invasive procedure.

2. The objective of the study was to characterise the particulate matter found in the samples (BAL, as well as dust samples and car exhaust)

3.  The samples were collected over a period from 2007-2011 and frozen until analysed (later 5 non frozen samples were also characterised).

4. The samples were unfrozen, centrifuged and the pellet was mixed with distilled water. This sample was then vortexed for 2 min, stirred for 12 hours, sonicated  and vortexed . The subsequent pellet was  re-dispersion in  purified water with sonication for 10 min. 3 μL of the resulting suspension was deposited onto the TEM grid

5. TEM pictures show fibre like structures ('aggregated PM and filament-like structures') subsequent analysis shows this to be carbonaceous in nature.

6. The authors concluded that carbon nanotubes (CNT) were present in all randomly selected samples, and the CNTs observed in the lungs of Parisian children are similar to those detected in dust and vehicle exhaust samples collected in the Parisian area. These CNTs are present in all examined samples.

Overall an interesting read.  It would be nice to see some more TEM samples from the study (perhaps as a supplement).  It would also be nice to see some comparisons of these TEM images with TEM images of other BAL, dust and car exhaust studies.

Kolosnjaj-Tabi et al., 2015

Kolosnjaj-Tabi et al., 2015

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This week in Nano (Week 42 12th-18th October)

This summer just gone the European Nano-Characterisation Laboratory (EU-NCL) funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme was launched. The lab hopes to alleviate the bottleneck in research when it comes to nanomaterial characterisation by providing a wide range of NM characterisation options. Knowing more about NM helps researchers to better understand/predict the in vivo effects of their nanomaterials. Hopefully this lab will be fully operational by 2017-2020 (phase three f the programme). For more information on the participating research institutes see here.

For those with a subscription to nature this Q&A session with Ali Yetisen about research using nanotechnology and biosensors to make environmentally responsive materials for clothes, tattoos, accessories and contact lenses is an interesting read. It is pay walled but it can be found here. 

“The binding of serum proteins can profoundly change the behaviour of nanoparticles, at times leading to rapid clearance by the body and a diminished clinical outcome,” - Asst Prof Kah. The protein corona is a topic that is of growing interest in the nano field, and this study published in Small (Observing nano-bio interactions in real time) details a new technique to investigate the corona formation.  The nanoparticles where immobilised to the surface of a sensor chip. The chip was specially modified to prevented non-specific binding. They then used surface plasmon resonance (SPR) technology to measure the protein corona. New techniques ans studies like this gives us a better understanding of how proteins in the bloodstream bind to nanoparticles. Ultimately this could lead to better nanomedicines.

This week in Nano: Week 40 (28th Sept-4th October)

NANO IN FOOD always makes headlines and I like this blog piece on 2020Science regarding the recent Friends of the Earth commissioned study (TEM pictures of food samples) which adds more dimension to the whole debate.

I recently discovered Experiment.com and wanted to share! Experiment.com is a platform for funding scientific discoveries. Want to fund a project investigating targeted drug delivery by using magnetic antiparticles or is investigating if toxins can incite Fungi to synthesize novel antibiotics more your thing? Either way you can help make these projects a reality via Experiment.com