Use of Cyanobacterial Luminescent Bioreporters to Report on the Environmental Impact of Metallic Nanoparticles

• Published in: Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 19; no. 16; p. 3597
• Main Authors: Hurtado-Gallego, Jara, Leganés, Francisco, Rosal, Roberto, Fernández-Piñas, Francisca
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 19.08.2019; MDPI
• Subjects: Algae; Anabaena; Bioavailability; Cyanobacteria; Cyanobacteria - drug effects; Cyanobacteria - metabolism; cyanobacterial bioreporters; Environmental impact; Environmental Pollutants - chemistry; Environmental Pollutants - toxicity; Gene expression; Heavy metals; Luminescent Measurements - methods; Metal ions; Metal Nanoparticles - chemistry; Metal Nanoparticles - toxicity; metallic nanoparticles; Nanoparticles; Nostoc; Oxidative stress; Oxidative Stress - drug effects; Production increases; Reactive Oxygen Species - analysis; Reactive Oxygen Species - metabolism; released free-ion; Silver; Silver - chemistry; Titanium; Titanium - chemistry; toxicity; Spain; toxicity; released free-ion; metallic nanoparticles; oxidative stress; cyanobacterial bioreporters
• ISSN: 1424-8220; 1424-8220
• DOI: 10.3390/S19163597

Due to their ecological relevance, low cost, and easy maintenance, cyanobacteria have been used for bioreporter development. In this study, a battery of cyanobacterial bioreporters has been used to assess the ecotoxicity of four highly used metallic nanoparticles (NPs). The toxicity of these NPs was tested using the bioreporter CPB4337 ( CPB4337). As oxidative stress is a primary toxic mechanism of metallic NPs, cyanobacterial reactive oxygen species (ROS)-detecting bioreporters were used. Metallic NPs release metal ions, which contribute to their toxic effect and the formation of ROS, so a metal-detecting bioreporter was also used to detect the bioavailable metals. The results confirm that ROS production by NPs was due to the NPs per se and not by released free-ions, which in fact were almost undetectable. Although the metal-detecting bioreporter could not detect the dissolved metal ions, it was able to detect the metallic NPs themselves, indicating that this bioreporter may be useful to detect them in the environment. ROS production varied depending on the growth medium or environmental matrices conditions and on the NP type. This work demonstrated the different levels of ROS production by metallic NPs and the importance of nanotoxicology studies in real matrices.