Issue 7, 2014

Proteomic evaluation of citrate-coated silver nanoparticles toxicity in Daphnia magna

Abstract

Recent decades have seen a strong increase in the promise and uses of nanotechnology. This is correlated with their growing release in the environment and there is concern that nanomaterials may endanger ecosystems. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have some of the most varied applications, making their release into the environment unavoidable. In order to assess their potential toxicity in aquatic environments, the acute toxicity of citrate-coated AgNPs to Daphnia magna was measured and compared to that of AgNO3. AgNPs were found to be ten times less toxic by mass than silver ions, and most of this toxicity was removed by ultracentrifuging. At the protein level, the two forms of silver had different impacts. Both increased protein thiol content, while only AgNP increased carbonyl levels. In 2DE of samples labelled for carbonyls, no feature was significantly affected by both compounds, indicating different modes of toxicity. Identified proteins showed functional overlap between the two compounds: vitellogenins (vtg) were present in most features identified, indicating their role as a general stress sensor. In addition to vtg, hemoglobin levels were increased by the AgNP exposure while 14-3-3 protein (a regulatory protein) carbonylation levels were reduced by AgNO3. Overall, this study confirms the previously observed lower acute toxicity of AgNPs, while demonstrating that the toxicity of both forms of silver follow somewhat different biologic pathways, potentially leading to different interactions with natural compounds or pollutants in the aquatic environment.

Graphical abstract: Proteomic evaluation of citrate-coated silver nanoparticles toxicity in Daphnia magna

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
21 Nov 2013
Accepted
16 Jan 2014
First published
17 Jan 2014

Analyst, 2014,139, 1678-1686

Author version available

Proteomic evaluation of citrate-coated silver nanoparticles toxicity in Daphnia magna

L. Rainville, D. Carolan, A. C. Varela, H. Doyle and D. Sheehan, Analyst, 2014, 139, 1678 DOI: 10.1039/C3AN02160B

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements