Nanoparticles, Lung Injury, and the Role of Oxidant Stress

The emergence of engineered nanoscale materials has provided significant advancements in electronic, biomedical, and material science applications. Both engineered nanoparticles and nanoparticles derived from combustion or incidental processes exhibit a range of physical and chemical properties, which have been shown to induce inflammation and oxidative stress in biologic systems. Oxidative stress reflects the imbalance between the generation of reaction oxygen species (ROS) and the biochemical mechanisms to detoxify and repair resulting damage of reactive intermediates. This review examines current research incidental and engineered nanoparticles in terms of their health effects on the lungs and mechanisms by which oxidative stress via physicochemical characteristics influence toxicity or biocompatibility. Although oxidative stress has generally been thought of as an adverse biological outcome, this review will also briefly discuss some of the potential emerging technologies to use nanoparticle-induced oxidative stress to treat disease in a site specific fashion

Redox (phospho)lipidomics of signaling in inflammation and programmed cell death

In addition to the known prominent role of polyunsaturated (phospho)lipids as structural blocks of biomembranes, there is an emerging understanding of another important function of these molecules as a highly diversified signaling language utilized for intra- and extracellular communications. Technological developments in high-resolution mass spectrometry facilitated the development of a new branch of metabolomics, redox lipidomics. Analysis of lipid peroxidation reactions has already identified specific enzymatic mechanisms responsible for the biosynthesis of several unique signals in response to inflammation and regulated cell death programs. Obtaining comprehensive information about millions of signals encoded by oxidized phospholipids, represented by thousands of interactive reactions and pleiotropic (patho)physiological effects, is a daunting task. However, there is still reasonable hope that significant discoveries, of at least some of the important contributors to the overall overwhelmingly complex network of interactions triggered by inflammation, will lead to the discovery of new small molecule regulators and therapeutic modalities. For example, suppression of the production of AA-derived pro-inflammatory mediators, HXA(3) and LTB4, by an iPLA(2)gamma inhibitor, R-BEL, mitigated injury associated with the activation of pro-inflammatory processes in animals exposed to whole-body irradiation. Further, technological developments promise to make redox lipidomics a powerful approach in the arsenal of diagnostic and therapeutic instruments for personalized medicine of inflammatory diseases and conditions