Nanotoxicity of Gold and Iron Nanoparticles

The extensive use of potentially hazardous nanoparticles in industrial applications suggest that their biological effects need to be evaluated following clinical testing practices as applicable for any new pharmaceutical. It was rationalized that a non hypothesis-driven approach is best suited for discovering the biological effects of nanoparticles. Gold nanoparticles (similar to 18 nm), showed no drastic effect on gene expression in cells but iron nanoparticles showed perturbations in the expression of a set of functional genes.