Issue 3, 2013
From the journal:

Chemical Society Reviews

Nanotoxicity assessment of quantum dots: from cellular to primate studies

Ken-Tye Yong,*a   Wing-Cheung Law,b   Rui Hu,a   Ling Ye,c   Liwei Liu,d   Mark T. Swiharte  and  Paras N. Prasad*bfg  

* Corresponding authors

a School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798, Singapore
E-mail: ktyong@ntu.edu.sg

b Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, Buffalo, USA
E-mail: pnprasad@buffalo.edu

c Institute of Gerontology and Geriatrics, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, PR China

d Changchun University of Science and Technology, Changchun, Jilin, PR China

e Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, Buffalo, USA

f Department of Chemistry, Korea University, Seoul, Korea

g Department of Chemistry, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, Buffalo, USA

Abstract

Tremendous research efforts have been devoted to fabricating high quality quantum dots (QDs) for applications in biology and medicine. Much of this research was pursued with an ultimate goal of using QDs in clinical applications. However, a great deal of concern has been voiced about the potential hazards of QDs due to their heavy-metal content. Many studies have demonstrated toxicity of various QDs in cell culture studies. However, in a smaller number of studies using small animal models (mice and rats), no abnormal behaviour or tissue damage was noticed over periods of months after the systemic administration of QDs. Nevertheless, the correlation of these results with the potential for negative effects of QD on humans remains unclear. Many urgent questions must be answered before the QDs community moves into the clinical research phase. This review provides an overview of the toxicity assessment of QDs, ranging from cell culture studies to animal models and discusses their findings. Guidelines for using various nonhuman primate models for QD toxicity studies are highlighted. This review article is intended to promote the awareness of current developments of QD applications in biology, the potential toxicity of QDs, and approaches to minimizing toxicity.

Graphical abstract: Nanotoxicity assessment of quantum dots: from cellular to primate studies

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Article information

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/C2CS35392J
Article type
Review Article
Submitted
21 Sep 2012
First published
22 Nov 2012

Chem. Soc. Rev., 2013,42, 1236-1250

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Nanotoxicity assessment of quantum dots: from cellular to primate studies

K. Yong, W. Law, R. Hu, L. Ye, L. Liu, M. T. Swihart and P. N. Prasad, Chem. Soc. Rev., 2013, 42, 1236 DOI: 10.1039/C2CS35392J

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