Nanotechnology and Safety Pharmacology

Nanomaterials have enormous potential to exert positive influence on a wide range of societal areas. Therefore, the assessment of nanomaterials’ safety is critical. However, because of the various characteristics of nanomaterials, identifying individual factors causing toxicity is difficult. Concurrently, it has become a goal to reduce animal experimentation using innovative and predictive in vitro and in silico methodologies. Thus, it is critical to recognize the essential physicochemical features of nanomaterials that contribute to toxicities. Further, using advanced nanomaterial safety evaluation methods for determining the safety of nanomaterial will significantly save time and cost of safe nanomaterial development. Here, we emphasize our discussion on the physicochemical properties of nanomaterials that contribute to their toxicity, molecular signaling pathways behind the nanomaterial toxicity, and some notable breakthroughs in nanomaterial hazard and risk assessment techniques.