Assessment of Carcinogenicity of Nanosilver in Dna Repair Deficient Mouse Models

Nanosilver/silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are the top ranking material used in nanotechnology-
enabled consumer products. Due to unique antibacterial properties AgNPs are increasingly being
used in health and personal care products, clothing and sporting goods, cosmetics and the food
sector. The use of AgNPs in food contact materials, dental care products and dietary
supplements, the possible use as antibiotic replacement in animal feed and environmental
contamination with their disposal products indicates that oral intake is a major route of exposure
to AgNPs in the general population. Thus, it is important to understand whether AgNPs are
genotoxic and/or carcinogenic when ingested orally. We recently reported that oral exposure of
mice to polyvinylpyrrolidone coated-AgNPs induces DNA deletions, strand breaks and oxidative
lesions and downregulates base excision repair genes. Different coating agents are used to
prevent aggregation and dissolution of AgNPs. We hypothesized that nanoparticle coatings may
influence genotoxicity of ingested AgNPs. The proposed studies linking physiochemical
properties to biological effects of nanomaterials seek to establish how the presence or absence of
different surface coatings modulate oral bioavailability, tissue accumulation and genotoxicity of
AgNPs.
2.