Advances in the Toxicity of Nanomaterials

Over the past few years, nanomaterials toxicology has emerged as a new exciting field in which theoretical and experimental studies of toxicity of nanomaterials have become a focus, and the importance of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), graphene oxide (GO), quantum dots (QDs), magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs), and amorphous silica nanoparticles (ASN) as special nanomaterials to the fundamental development in biomedical engineering has begun to be recognized. In particular, interaction between nanomaterials and nucleic acids, proteins or cells, animals, environment, etc. has become a new interdisciplinary frontier, there is an increasing need for a more systematic study of the basic issues involved in nanomaterials toxicity and potential toxicity-reducing methods, great advances have been and are being made in nanomaterials’ biological effects and application in disease diagnosis and therapy. Here we review some of the main advances in this field over past few years, and discuss about the concepts, issues, approaches, and challenges, with the aim of stimulating a broader interest in studying the toxicological mechanism of nanomaterials and potential toxicityeliminating measurement.