Experimental Testing of an Approach to Establishing Combined Toxicity of Ternary Nanoparticle Mixtures

Abstract

Our studies of exposure to binary mixtures of nanoparticles (TiO2 + SiO2; TiO2 + Al2O3 and SiO2 + Al2O3) based on mathematical modelling show that their combined subchronic toxicity can either be of an additive type or deviate from it depending on the outcome, dose ratio, and levels of effect. To characterize the type of toxicity of ternary mixtures of nanoparticles, we successfully tested a previously developed approach for assessing the combined toxicity of metal ions. In this approach, the effects are classified by a null, positive, or negative change in the toxicity of binary nanoparticle mixtures when modeled against the toxicity of the third agent added.