The present critical review analyzes the question of how nanoparticles from continuously growing industrial production and use of nanomaterials may impact human brain health.

Available evidence suggests incomplete effectiveness of protective barriers of the brain against nanoparticles translocation to the brain. This raises concerns of potential effects of manufactured nanoparticles on brain functions, given that nanoparticle’s potential to induce oxidative stress, inflammation, death by apoptosis, or changes in the level of expression of certain neurotransmitters. Most concerns have not been studied sufficiently and many questions are still open: Are the findings in animals transposable to humans? What happens when exposure is chronic or protracted? What happens to the developing brain when exposure occurs in utero? Are some nanoparticles more deleterious, given their ability to alter protein conformations and aggregation? Aside from developments in nanomedicine, the evidence already available fully justifies the need to specifically evaluate the interactions between nanoparticles and the nervous system. The available data clearly indicates the need for original dedicated experimental models and tools for neurotoxicological research on the one hand, and the need for epidemiological studies of neurodegenerative diseases in manufactured nanoparticle-exposed populations, on the other. A combination of nanotoxicology with neurology in a novel discipline, with its specific tools and methods of investigation, should enable answering still unresolved questions.

本重要评论分析了持续增长的工业生产和使用纳米材料产生的纳米颗粒如何影响人脑健康的问题。

现有证据表明，针对纳米粒子移位到大脑的保护性屏障对大脑的保护作用不完全。鉴于纳米颗粒具有诱导氧化应激，炎症，细胞凋亡死亡或某些神经递质表达水平改变的潜力，因此引起了对制造纳米颗粒对脑功能的潜在影响的关注。对大多数问题的研究还不够充分，许多问题仍然悬而未决：动物中的发现是否可转化为人类？长期暴露或长期暴露会怎样？当子宫内发生暴露时，发育中的大脑会发生什么？鉴于某些纳米粒子具有改变蛋白质构象和聚集的能力，它们是否更具危害性？除了纳米医学的发展外，已有证据充分证明需要专门评估纳米颗粒与神经系统之间的相互作用。现有数据清楚地表明，一方面需要进行神经毒理学研究的原始专用实验模型和工具，另一方面需要对人造纳米颗粒暴露的人群进行神经退行性疾病的流行病学研究。纳米毒理学和神经病学在一个新学科中的结合，及其特定的研究工具和方法，应该能够回答尚未解决的问题。