article · Journal of Nanobiotechnology
Engineered nanomaterials offer significant opportunities to boost agricultural productivity, support circular economy principles, and address climate change challenges. However, their use introduces risks known as the nano-paradox, where beneficial properties conflict with potential toxicity. Unlike bulk materials, these engineered particles interact differently with biological and environmental systems. They can accumulate in soil and living organisms, transfer through food chains, and reach humans, potentially causing cellular damage and oxidative stress. Managing these risks requires a clear understanding of cellular uptake, genetic toxicity, dynamic biological interactions, and long-term environmental impacts. By examining toxicity mechanisms, assessment protocols, and regulatory mitigation strategies, researchers aim to balance the benefits of nanotechnology with safe deployment, ensuring that agricultural and industrial innovations align with sustainable development goals.
While nanotechnology holds great promise for modernising farming and tackling environmental challenges, unseen toxic effects can threaten ecosystems and human health. Understanding how nanoparticles travel through food chains and damage cells allows scientists and regulators to establish safety rules. This balance ensures society can harness the economic and agricultural advantages of new materials without causing unintended long-term environmental harm.
The work highlights applications for agricultural inputs, industrial processes, and environmental management. Commercial developers, agrochemical enterprises, and regulatory bodies can use these risk assessment methods and toxicity mitigation strategies to design safer nano-enabled products. Because this is a broad review examining fundamental toxicology mechanisms, environmental frameworks, and policy guidelines, the insights represent early-stage conceptual and regulatory guidance rather than an immediate, near-market commercial product.
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Engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) have aroused extensive interest in agricultural, industrial, and medical applications. The integration of ENMs into the agricultural systems aligns with the principles of United Nations' sustainable development goals (SDGs), circular economy (CE) and bio-economy (BE) principles. This approach offers excellent opportunities to enhance productivity and address global climate change challenges. The revelation of the adverse effects of nanomaterials (NMs) on various organisms and ecosystems, however, has fueled the debate on 'Nano-paradox' leading to emergence of a new research domain 'Nanotoxicology'. ENMs have shown different interactions with biological and environmental systems as compared to their bulk counterparts. They bioaccumulate in organisms, soils, and other environmental matrices, move through food chains and reach higher trophic levels including humans ultimately resulting in oxidative stress and cellular damage. Understanding nano-bio interactions, the mechanism of gene- and cytotoxicity, and associated potential hazards, is therefore, essential to mitigate their toxicological outputs. This review comprehensively examines the cyto- and genotoxicity mechanisms of ENMs in biological systems, covering aspects such as their entry, uptake, cellular responses, dynamic interactions in biological environments their long-term effects and environmental risk assessment (ERA). It also discusses toxicological assessment methods, regulatory policies, strategies for toxicity management/mitigation and future research directions in nanotechnology, all within the context of SDGs, CE, promoting resource efficiency and sustainability. Navigating the nano-paradox involves balancing the benefits of nanomaterials with concerns about nanotoxicity. Prioritizing thorough research on above facets can ensure sustainability and safety, enabling responsible harnessing of nanotechnology's transformative potential in various applications including mitigating global climate change and enhancing agricultural productivity.
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DOI: 10.1186/s12951-025-03371-5
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