Milda Babonaitė has defended her thesis entitled "Assessment of Nanoparticle Genotoxicity and its Cellular Uptake by Human Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells" for the degree of Doctor of Science in Biology.
The scientific supervisor is Prof. Habil. Dr. Juozas Rimantas Lazutka
Composition of the Dissertation Defense Board: Chairperson - Assoc. Prof. Dr. Raimondas Šiukšta (Vilnius University, Natural Sciences, Biology); Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tatjana Čėsnienė (Vilnius University, Natural Sciences, Biology); Dr. Naouale El Yamani (Norwegian Institute for Air Research, Norway, Natural Sciences, Biology); Prof. Dr. Eglė Lastauskienė (Vilnius University, Natural Sciences, Biology); Dr. Milda Stankevičiūtė (Nature Research Centre, Natural Sciences, Biology).
Nanoparticles (NPs) are materials of natural or anthropogenic origin with one or more outer dimensions between 1 and 100 nm. Due to their small size, NDs may exhibit unusual physicochemical properties that are not characteristic of their micro- and macroscopic counterparts. For this reason, an increasing number of NDs of anthropogenic origin are being developed and applied in various fields such as medicine, technology, and industry. Given that the exponential growth of ND synthesis will continue, this raises concerns about the potential adverse effects of ND on living organisms. This work investigated the cytotoxicity and genotoxicity of 11 different types of NDs. The studies were conducted on human peripheral blood mononuclear cells using different genotoxicity assays, identifying a broad spectrum of DNA damage.
Based on these results, three different mechanisms of ND-induced genotoxicity were identified. After effective internalization, NDs (Co3O4-, Al2O3- and PS-NDs) inducing reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation caused not only primary DNA damage but also significant chromosomal damage, while NDs (PVP-Ag, SiO2-NDs) that did not induce ROS formation caused only DNA breaks. Studies have also shown that NDs may have limited internalization and ROS induction (Au-NDs) but can still induce a statistically significant increase in primary DNA damage. The results of this work demonstrate the importance of using complex assays in nanogenotoxicology, providing theoretical insights into the mechanisms of ND-induced genotoxicity and may contribute to developing new guidelines for ND research.
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